From the 1950s eagle populations plummeted precipitously, the cause being determined that ingestion of DDT from the largely fish diet induced egg shell thinning to the extent the female eagle would break the eggs when attempting to incubate them. DDT was subsequently banned for use in this country. Eagle populations have since rebounded astonishingly, to the point they recently have been downlisted from federally endangered status. Eagles can be seen almost daily from the windows of the Science Museum.

I can say little about any outstanding visible aspects of this egg which seems so small for the size of the bird that laid it. But it is from an egg or eggs such as this one that the cause of the great decline in bald eagles in the past century was identified. This shows the scientific value, I believe, from collections obtained in the past that acquired new unforeseen values in the present and perhaps will in the future as well.