Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Last updated
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Logo.png
NaturalHistoryMuseumOfLosAngelesCounty.jpg
The east entrance and façade
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Established1913 (1913)
Location Exposition Park
Los Angeles, California
Coordinates 34°1′1″N118°17′16″W / 34.01694°N 118.28778°W / 34.01694; -118.28778
Type Natural history museum
Visitorsabout 1 million annually
Director Lori Bettison-Varga [1]
Public transit access LAMetroLogo.svg LACMTA Circle E Line.svg   Expo Park/USC, Expo/Vermont
Website nhm.org
Natural History Museum
U.S. - Los Angeles Metropolitan Area location map.svg
Red pog.svg
USA California location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location900 Exposition Blvd
Los Angeles, California
Area6 acres (2.4 ha)
Built1913
Architect Hudson & Munsell
Architectural style
NRHP reference No. 75000434 [2]
Added to NRHPMarch 4, 1975

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the Western United States. [3] The museum is located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, next to the California Science Center. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large collection comprises not only of specimens for exhibition, but also vast research collections housed on and offsite.

Contents

The museum is associated with two other museums in Greater Los Angeles: the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park and the William S. Hart Ranch and Museum in Newhall. The three museums work together to achieve their common mission: "to inspire wonder, discovery, and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds." [4]

History

Considered one of the first preservationists in Los Angeles, Californio politician Antonio F. Coronel's donations formed the original collection of the museum. Antonio Coronel.png
Considered one of the first preservationists in Los Angeles, Californio politician Antonio F. Coronel's donations formed the original collection of the museum.

NHM opened in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, in 1913 as The Museum of History, Science, and Art. The moving force behind it was a museum association founded in 1910. Its distinctive main building with fitted marble walls and domed and colonnaded rotunda, is on The National Register of Historic Places. Additional wings opened in 1925, 1930, 1960, and 1976.

The museum split in 1961 into The Los Angeles County Museum of History and Science and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). LACMA moved to new quarters on Wilshire Boulevard in 1965, and the Museum of History and Science was renamed The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Eventually, the museum renamed itself again, becoming The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

In 2003, the museum began a campaign to transform its exhibits and visitor experience. The museum reopened its seismically retrofitted renovated 1913 rotunda, along with the new "Age of Mammals" exhibition [7] in 2010. Its Dinosaur Hall opened in July 2011. A new Los Angeles history exhibition, "Becoming Los Angeles", opened in 2013. The outdoor Nature Gardens and Nature Lab, which explore L.A. wildlife, also opened in 2013.

In 2024, the museum plans to open a new wing of the museum called the NHM Commons. [8] The commons will be approximately 60,000 square feet consisting of renovations, new constructions, and landscaping; it will be located on the southwest side of the museum. The commons aims to be a community space with a combination of indoor and outdoor experiences including a welcome area, a lobby with a shop, a theater, a café, and a plaza.

Research and collections

The museum maintains research and collections in the following fields:

The museum has three floors of permanent exhibits. Among the most popular museum displays are those devoted to animal habitats, dinosaurs, pre-Columbian cultures, The Ralph M. Parsons Discovery Center and Insect Zoo, and the new Nature Lab, which explores urban wildlife in Southern California.

The museum's collections are strong in many fields, but the mineralogy and Pleistocene paleontology are the most esteemed, the latter thanks to the wealth of specimens collected from The La Brea Tar Pits.

The museum has almost 30 million specimens representing marine zoology. These include one of the largest collections of marine mammal remains in the world, housed in a warehouse off site, which at over 5,000 specimens is second in size only to that of The Smithsonian. [9]

The museum's collection of historical documents is held in The Seaver Center for Western History Research. [10]

Special exhibits

The museum hosts regular special exhibitions which augment its collections and advance its mission. Recent special exhibits have included Mummies and Pterosaurs, both in 2016. The museum has also recently hosted exhibits that incorporate pop culture, such as an exhibit promoting House of the Dragon in 2022. [11] There have also been Los Angeles themed special exhibits such as a Becoming Los Angeles that showcases Los Angeles history through the years, divided up into before 1929 and after 1929. [12] Another example would be the current exhibit titled L.A. Underwater which exhibits almost 40 fossils from the prehistoric time, when the land where L.A. now is, was underwater. [13]

The museum also hosts a butterfly pavilion outside every spring and summer and a spider pavilion on the same site in the fall. [14] [15]

Since 2017, the museum has hosted a special exhibit about P-22, the mountain lion that lived in nearby Griffith Park. [16] [17] [18]

Architecture

Over the years, the museum has built additions onto its original building. Originally dedicated when The Natural History Museum opened in 1913, the rotunda is one of the museum's most elegant and popular spaces. Lined with marble columns and crowned by a stained glass dome, the room is also the home of the very first piece of public art funded by Los Angeles County, a Beaux-Arts statue by Julia Bracken Wendt entitled Three Muses, or History, Science and Art. [19] This hall is among the most distinctive locales in Los Angeles and has often been used as a filming location.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Brea Tar Pits</span> Paleontological research site in Los Angeles

La Brea Tar Pits is an active paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural asphalt has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years. Over many centuries, the bones of trapped animals have been preserved. The George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there. La Brea Tar Pits is a registered National Natural Landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural History Museum, London</span> British museum established in 1881

The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dire wolf</span> Extinct species of canine mammal

The dire wolf is an extinct canine. The dire wolf lived in the Americas during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs. The species was named in 1858, four years after the first specimen had been found. Two subspecies are recognized: Aenocyon dirus guildayi and Aenocyon dirus dirus. The largest collection of its fossils has been obtained from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles County Museum of Art</span> Art museum in California, United States

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Museum of Natural History</span> Natural history museum in Washington, D.C.

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 million visitors in 2023, it was the third most-visited museum in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural History Museum, Berlin</span> Natural history museum in Berlin, Germany

The Natural History Museum is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major museums in Germany alongside Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt and Museum Koenig in Bonn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnegie Museum of Natural History</span> Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. Housing some 22 million specimens, the museum features one of the most extensive paleontological and entomological collections in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural History Museum, Vienna</span> Museum in Vienna, Austria

The Natural History Museum Vienna is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jurassic National Monument</span>

Jurassic National Monument, at the site of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, well known for containing the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur fossils ever found, is a paleontological site located near Cleveland, Utah, in the San Rafael Swell, a part of the geological layers known as the Morrison Formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hancock Park</span> Public park in Los Angeles, California, United States

Hancock Park is a city park in the Miracle Mile section of the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood in Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles R. Knight</span> American painter (1874–1953)

Charles Robert Knight was an American wildlife and paleoartist best known for his detailed paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. His works have been reproduced in many books and are currently on display at several major museums in the United States. One of his most famous works is a mural of Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, which helped establish the two dinosaurs as "mortal enemies" in popular culture. Working at a time when many fossil discoveries were fragmentary and dinosaur anatomy was not well understood, many of his illustrations have later been shown to be incorrect representations. Nevertheless, he has been hailed as "one of the great popularizers of the prehistoric past".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McKittrick Tar Pits</span> Series of natural asphalt lakes situated in the western part of Kern County in southern California

The McKittrick Tar Pits are a series of natural asphalt lakes situated in the western part of Kern County in southern California. The pits are the most extensive asphalt lakes in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleontology in California</span> Paleontological research occurring within or conducted by California

Paleontology in California refers to paleontologist research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of California. California contains rocks of almost every age from the Precambrian to the Recent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleontology in the United States</span>

A substantial amount of paleontological research has occurred within or conducted by people from the United States. Paleontologists have found that at the start of the Paleozoic era, what is now "North" America was actually in the southern hemisphere. Marine life flourished in the country's many seas. Later the seas were largely replaced by swamps, home to amphibians and early reptiles. When the continents had assembled into Pangaea drier conditions prevailed. The evolutionary precursors to mammals dominated the country until a mass extinction event ended their reign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hildegarde Howard</span> American paleornithologist

Hildegarde Howard was an American pioneer in paleornithology. She was mentored by the famous ornithologist, Joseph Grinnell, at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) and in avian paleontology. She was well known for her discoveries in the La Brea Tar Pits, among them the Rancho La Brea eagles. She discovered and described Pleistocene flightless waterfowl at the prehistoric Ballona wetlands of coastal Los Angeles County at Playa del Rey. In 1953, Howard became the third woman to be awarded the Brewster Medal. She was the first woman president of the Southern California Academy of Sciences. Hildegarde wrote 150 papers throughout her career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilshire/Fairfax station</span> Future rapid transit station in Los Angeles, California

Wilshire/Fairfax station is an under construction, underground rapid transit station on the D Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system in LA's Miracle Mile area along Wilshire Boulevard at its intersection with Fairfax Avenue. It is slated to open in 2025. It will be served by the D Line and will be the second station west of Wilshire/Western station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleobiota of the La Brea Tar Pits</span>

A list of prehistoric and extinct species whose fossils have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits, located in present-day Hancock Park, a city park on the Miracle Mile section of the Mid-Wilshire district in Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peabody Museum of Natural History</span> Natural history museum of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA

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.

Marion Charles Bonner (1911–1992), based for most of his life in Leoti, Kansas, was an American field paleontologist who discovered and collected hundreds of fossils, primarily from the Niobrara Cretaceous Smoky Hill chalk outcroppings in Logan, Scott, and Gove counties of western Kansas. Largely self-taught, he frequently collaborated with museum paleontologists, including George F. Sternberg, at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, and Shelton P. Applegate, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

References

  1. Boehm, Mike (July 8, 2015). "Lori Bettison-Varga named new president of L.A. County's Natural History Museum". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  2. "Natural History Museum". United States Department of the InteriorNational Park Service. March 4, 1975.
  3. "Libraries & Museums". County of Los Angeles . Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  4. "Mission". Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 2009-09-08.
  5. Wakim, Marielle (May 15, 2018). "Fascinating Objects Tell the Story of L.A. in This Revamped Exhibit". Los Angeles . Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  6. "Antonio de Coronel". Archived from the original on 2015-09-09. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  7. Muchnic, Suzanne (July 4, 2010). "'Age of Mammals' at The Natural History Museum". Los Angeles Times.
  8. "Opening New Doors to Natural History". Natural History Museum. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  9. Fessenden, Marissa (July 20, 2015). "In L.A. There's a Warehouse Filled with Whale Bones". Smithsonian .
  10. "About the Seaver Center". Natural History Museum Los Angeles County. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  11. "House of the Dragon:The Targaryen Dynasty | Natural History Museum". nhm.org. 2022-08-05. Retrieved 2023-05-30.
  12. "Becoming Los Angeles". Natural History Museum. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  13. "L.A. Underwater". Natural History Museum. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  14. "Butterfly Pavilion". Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  15. "Spider Pavilion". Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  16. "P-22: The story of L.A.'s most famous feline". Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
  17. "'LA's most famous feline,' P-22, gets a special exhibit at the Natural History Museum". KPCC 89.3 FM. 20 July 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  18. Elston, Christina (21 July 2017). "P-22 Shows His Stuff at the Natural History Museum". L.A. Parent.
  19. Rubenstein, Charlotte Streifer (1990). American Women Sculptors: A History of Women Working in Three Dimensions . Boston: G. K. Hall. p. 108. ISBN   978-0-8161-8732-4.