The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is home to a number of museums.
Located on the university's Central Campus are University of Michigan Museum of Natural History; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology; Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry of the School of Dentistry. Adjacent to the Central Campus is the Nichols Arboretum and Matthaei Botanical Gardens.
Located on the university's North Campus is the Warren Robbins Gallery and Slusser Gallery of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, formerly known as the Exhibit Museum of Natural History, began in the mid-19th century and expanded greatly with the donation of 60,000 specimens by Joseph Beal Steere, a U-M alumnus, in the 1870s. The museum holds the largest display of dinosaur specimens in Michigan [ citation needed ], as well as specimens of the state fossil, the mastodon (the only such display in the world containing adult male and female specimens: the Buesching and Owosso mastodons). [1]
The museum was formerly housed in the Alexander G. Ruthven Museums Building and was recently moved into the new Biological Sciences Building. The Museum of Natural History includes a planetarium and exhibits on geology, paleontology in Michigan and beyond, Michigan wildlife, Native American culture and anthropology. [2] The exhibit displays include material borrowed from the other U-M museums, which are all different departmental units.
The Museum of Anthropology is a research, teaching, and curation unit of the College of Literature, Science and Arts for anthropological and archaeological collections from around the world. The collections support undergraduate and graduate education, and a portion are displayed in the U-M Museum of Natural History. The Museum of Anthropology formally started in 1922. [3] The Museum of Anthropology is open to researchers, classes and members of the public by appointment.
The Museum of Paleontology (UMMP) is a research museum illuminating the history and meaning of life through geological time. The Museum of Paleontology collections are located at the Research Museum Center and other departmental offices are in the Biological Sciences Building (where the Museum of Natural History is located). The Museum of Paleontology is open to researchers by appointment only.
The Museum of Zoology (UMMZ), whose collection includes over 15 million specimens representing all orders of birds, amphibians and reptiles, mites, and insects, and over 80% of orders of fish and mollusks.
Another museum located on Central Campus is the Kelsey Museum of Archeology, which has a collection of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Middle Eastern artifacts. [4] Between 1972 and 1974, the museum was involved in the excavation of the archaeological site of Dibsi Faraj in northern Syria. [5] The Kelsey Museum re-opened November 1, 2009 after a renovation and expansion. [6]
The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is a meeting place for the arts, bridging visual art and contemporary culture, scholarship and accessibility, tradition and innovation. The museum's collections include nearly 19,000 objects that span cultures, eras, and media and include European, American, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African art, as well as changing exhibits. The Museum of Art re-opened in 2009 after a three-year renovation and expansion. [7] UMMA presents special exhibitions and diverse educational programs featuring the visual, performing, film and literary arts that contextualize the gallery experience. [8]
Also on Central Campus and housed in the School of Dentistry building is the Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry. The collection contains over 15,000 objects pertaining to the history of the dental profession.
Nichols Arboretum is a 123-acre site adjacent to Central Campus. The entrance from campus is on Washington Heights near the University Hospital complex. The ceremonial entrance is on Geddes Road.
The Detroit Observatory is adjacent to the University Hospital complex. Containing two telescopes, it was the first observatory in Michigan and the second in Midwest, and is the second oldest building remaining on campus. [9] The Nichols Arboretum is also adjacent to the University Hospital complex.
The Warren Robbins Gallery and Slusser Gallery are art exhibit galleries housed in the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design building on North Campus.
The Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments, located in the Earl V. Moore Building of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, houses over 2,500 pieces of historical and contemporary musical instruments from all over the world. [10]
The Matthaei Botanical Gardens, is a 350-acre facility located on the eastern boundary of Ann Arbor, about 10 km from campus. It is another major collection of the university.
The University of Michigan Herbarium, a research and teaching collection, is located south of the main campus. [11]
This 90 acre research natural area is managed by the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. It was donated to the University of Michigan by the Michigan Botanical Club in 1964 as a plant and wildflower sanctuary for scientific, educational and aesthetic purposes. Public parking and trail-head access is through the Raymond F. Goodrich Preserve, Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation.
This 260 acre research natural area is managed by the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. It is at the northern edge of Washtenaw County, Michigan, about 20 km from Ann Arbor. Access is restricted and granted through permission of the Gardens.
The University of Michigan is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, the university is the oldest and largest in Michigan; it was established twenty years before the territory became a state. Since 1871, Michigan has been a coeducational institution. Today it enrolls approximately 32,000 undergraduate students and 16,000 graduate students.
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre concentration of educational, cultural and medical institutions. The museum was established in 1920 by Cyrus S. Eaton to perform research, education and development of collections in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, botany, geology, paleontology, wildlife biology, and zoology. The museum traces its roots to the Ark, formed in 1836 on Cleveland's Public Square by William Case, the Academy of Natural Science formed by William Case and Jared Potter Kirtland, and the Kirtland Society of Natural History, founded in 1869 and reinvigorated in 1922 by the trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural-history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The culture of Ann Arbor, Michigan includes various attractions and events, many of which are connected with the University of Michigan.
Nichols Arboretum, locally known as the Arb, is an arboretum operated by the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum (MBGNA) at the University of Michigan. Located on the eastern edge of its Central Campus at 1610 Washington Heights in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Arboretum is a mosaic of University and City properties operated as one unit. The arboretum is open daily from sunrise to sunset with no charge for admission. The Huron River separates a northern section of the arboretum's floodplain woods; the railroad marks the northern border.
The Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) is a museum located in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The museum shows exhibits of natural history subjects, with an emphasis on Utah and the Intermountain West. The mission of the museum is to illuminate the natural world and the place of humans within it. A new building, named the Rio Tinto Center, opened in November 2011. The museum is part of the University of Utah and is located in the university's Research Park.
The Beneski Museum of Natural History, Amherst College is located on the campus of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. It showcases fossils and minerals collected locally and abroad, many by past and present students and professors. The Museum is located in the Beneski Earth Sciences Building, completed in 2006. It is a member of Museums10.
The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with 94,000 sq ft (8,700 m2) is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall originally housed U-M's Alumni office along with the university's growing art collection. Its first director was Jean Paul Slusser, who served from 1946 to his retirement in 1957.
The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol. The museum houses art, artifacts, and ecofacts that reflect New York’s cultural, natural, and geological development. Operated by the New York State Education Department's Office of Cultural Education, it is the oldest and largest state museum in the US. Formerly located in the State Education Building, the museum now occupies the first four floors of the Cultural Education Center, a ten-story, 1,500,000-square-foot (140,000 m2) building that also houses the New York State Archives and New York State Library.
The Museum of the Earth is a natural history museum located in Ithaca, New York. The museum was opened in 2003 as part of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), an independent organization pursuing research and education in the history of the Earth and its life. Both PRI and the Museum of the Earth are formally affiliated with Cornell University. The Museum of the Earth is home to Earth science exhibits and science-related art displays with a focus on the concurrent evolution of the Earth and life.
The University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History (MNCH), commonly known as the UO Natural History Museum, is an American natural history museum at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Located near Hayward Field on the east side of the UO campus, it is the largest natural history museum between Seattle and San Francisco and a center for archaeological and paleontological research in the Pacific Northwest and the wider world. The museum headquarters and public spaces are located at 1680 East 15th Avenue in a building inspired by the design of Pacific Northwest Native longhouses.
The Alabama Museum of Natural History is the state's natural history museum, located in Smith Hall at the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa. The oldest museum in the state, it was founded in 1831. The exhibits depict the natural diversity of Alabama from the Age of Dinosaurs, the Coal Age, and the Ice Age. Collections include items relating to geology, zoology, mineralogy, paleontology, ethnology, history, and photography. The Grand Gallery Exhibition Hall houses a replica of a Basilosaurus cetoides, an Eocene whale that has been designated as the State Fossil. Exhibits of special interest include the skull of an American mastodon dredged from the Tombigbee River near Demopolis and the Hodges meteorite. The latter hit a woman as it fell to earth near Sylacauga on November 30, 1954. The museum sponsors expeditions throughout the year, as it has since 1979.
The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.
Dibsi Faraj is an archaeological site on the right bank of the Euphrates in Aleppo Governorate (Syria). The site was excavated as part of a larger international effort coordinated by UNESCO to excavate as many archaeological sites as possible in the area that would be flooded by the reservoir created by the Tabqa Dam, which was being built at that time. An initial, small archaeological sounding was done at Dibsi Faraj by the Syrian Department of Antiquities in 1971. Following this investigation, the site was excavated between 1972 and 1974 as part of a joint operation of the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan under the direction of Richard P. Harper. Since then, the site has disappeared under the rising waters of Lake Assad, the reservoir created by the Tabqa Dam.
The Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry is a museum of the history of dentistry, operated by the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Visitors to the museum can only gain access to the building through the main clinic entrance. Located on the university's Central Campus, the museum is one of only a handful of dentistry museums in the world.
The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is a museum of archaeology located on the University of Michigan central campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States. The museum is a unit of the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. It has a collection of more than 100,000 ancient and medieval artifacts from the civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Near East. In addition to displaying its permanent and special exhibitions, the museum sponsors research and fieldwork and conducts educational programs for the public and for schoolchildren. The museum also houses the University of Michigan Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology.
The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is one of the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, an early paleontologist. The museum is best known for the Great Hall of Dinosaurs, which includes a mounted juvenile Brontosaurus and the 110-foot-long (34 m) mural The Age of Reptiles. The museum also has permanent exhibits dedicated to human and mammal evolution; wildlife dioramas; Egyptian artifacts; local birds and minerals; and Native Americans of Connecticut.