Inside the Museum
Summer fieldwork was the fun part of doing research. Throughout the rest of the year, museum staff analyzed fossils, prepared material for publication, and occasionally created exhibits.
Museum staff corresponded constantly, loaning artifacts between institutions and offering feedback on each others' work. Letters, memos, prints, and phone calls were the chief means of communication in the 1920s.
Goldring received mail internationally, from paleontologists in Britain, Russia, Germany, and France. Competency in multiple languages was important because countries that are nowhere near each other today may have been connected millions of years ago. When Goldring published her volume on the Gilboa fossils, museums around the world wanted to loan or purchase them.
Analyzing and sharing research privately or between colleagues was just the beginning. Scientists published monographs, articles, handbooks, and pamphlets about their work. Winifred Goldring published often, for both professional and public audiences. She was active in 19 professional and scientific organizations, holding unprecedented ranks in the Paleontological and Geological Societies of America near the end of her career.
Why were her positions in these societies so notable? Because she was a woman, and women didn't lead important scientific organizations at that time.
To learn more about Goldring's experiences as one of the only high-ranking women in her field, continue to the next section.