UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For the past few months, Patti Wood Finkle has been busy sifting through the EMS Museum and Art Gallery’s vast collection of roughly 20,000 items. Since January, the new collections manager has been working to identify, expound on and catalog the items, many of which haven’t seen the light of day in decades.

With her she brings more than a decade of experience in museums, most recently working as the director of the Tate Geological Museum and the Warner Wildlife Museum at Casper College in Wyoming. Before that, she served as Tate’s exhibit specialist, a position she took after graduating with a master’s degree in museum science from Texas Tech.

Finkle has extensive experience working with collections related to archaeology, paleontology and geology, so the museum seemed like a perfect fit for her, she said. It has a lot of what she already knows and some interesting things to expand her expertise. A museum with a focus in mining, minerals and art, she said, is rare.

“The cool thing about this museum is that we have the Earth materials collection, but we also have an art collection and a vast collection of mining equipment and scientific instruments,” Finkle said. “We have a lot of the small tools and instruments that people had in the mines — things like personal respirators, mining lamps, carbon monoxide detectors and altimeters — all sorts of objects workers used in the mines. We also have some really nice surveying equipment. Being able to work with this equipment is really fun, too, because that’s not my expertise. I’m enjoying that.”

Some of the items Finkle has looked over include handmade, century-old compasses and mining helmets made from boiled canvas and hardened with a form of shellac.

The sense of discovery is something that drove Finkle to the position. She said she loves finding objects where little is known about them, and she begins sleuthing to trace its origin and intent.

“Often you go down these rabbit holes, and you’re rewarded at the end for your efforts,” Finkle said. “Nearly everything is on the internet so it’s just a matter of finding it.”

Finkle is poring over the collections, making sure pieces are housed where they’re supposed to be, updating the database so that the collections can be used globally in research and finding additional information. She’s also been busy inventorying a large fossil collection donated by the family of a former Penn State faculty member.

Guests will find gallery space has doubled thanks to the renovations and top-to-bottom updates to the museum space. The art exhibit “Women’s Work,” which features artwork from the museum’s Steidle Collection of American Industrial Art that were created by women showcasing industry in Pennsylvania, will be on view through the Fall 2022 semester. The museum is showcasing fossils and fluorites among its exhibits with plans to install features on critical minerals; tools used for augmenting scientific observation, such as former Penn State President Evan Pugh’s microscope; and sustainability. The gallery is open this summer while exhibits are being installed or updated. A grand opening event will be announced later this year.

Finkle said she plans to reach out to faculty members to help the museum achieve its goal of being more inclusive to the encompassing research interests of the college while still keeping the museum accessible to the general public.

“I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues in the college but also with my colleagues and the museums around campus,” Finkle said. “I can’t wait to meet all of them and to be able to better our exhibits and educational outreach. I’m passionate about creating an environment where everyone from a child to an academic professional can learn.”