The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and sciencemuseum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help museum visitors learn about the natural history of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. The 716,000-square-foot (66,519m2) building houses more than one million objects in its collections including natural history and anthropological materials, as well as archival and library resources.
In 2022 the museum received 1,151,000 visitors, ranking eighth in the List of most-visited museums in the United States. It was the fourth-most-visited U.S. museum of nature and science.[3] The museum's official online magazine is called Catalyst.[4]
The museum provides programming in six main areas. The exhibitions, Infinity Theater films, lectures, classes, and programs pertain to one or more of the following core competencies: anthropology, geology, health science, paleontology, space science, and zoology. More than 300,000 students and teachers visit the museum with school groups each year. In addition, the museum has science outreach programs and distance–learning opportunities for families, schools and surrounding communities. The museum also offers ongoing professional training workshops for teachers.
In 1868, Edwin Carter moved into a tiny cabin in Breckenridge, Colorado, to pursue his passion, the scientific study of the birds and mammals of the Rocky Mountains. Almost single-handedly, Carter assembled one of the most complete collections of Colorado fauna then in existence.[5]
Word of Carter's collection spread and, in 1892, a group of prominent Denver citizens declared their interest in moving his collection to the capital city for all to see. Carter offered to sell the entire collection for $10,000. The founders also secured a collection of butterflies and moths, and a collection of crystallized gold.[6]
Together, these three collections formed the nucleus of what would become the Colorado Museum of Natural History, officially incorporated on December 6, 1900. After years of preparation and construction, the Colorado Museum of Natural History finally opened to the public on July 1, 1908.[7]John F. Campion, the first president of the board, said in his dedication address, "A museum of natural history is never finished". The first director was hired and quickly recruited staff to build more exhibits and create public programs. By 1918, another wing had opened and research efforts were well underway.
In 1927, a team led by the Colorado Museum discovered two stone projectile points embedded in an extinct species of bison, in Folsom, New Mexico. These Folsom points demonstrated that humans had lived in North America more than 10,000 years ago, hundreds of years earlier than previously believed.[8]
The city of Denver increased its funding for the museum, leading to a name change to Denver Museum of Natural History in 1948.[9] The name was changed again in 2000 to the present Denver Museum of Nature and Science, reflecting the institution's wider focus.[10]
The museum is partially funded by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), which was created by area voters in 1988.[11] It has also attracted large donations from benefactors, such as Morgridge Family Foundation led by philanthropist Carrie Morgridge, which gave $8 million to the museum in 2010, described as being the largest single gift since its founding.[12]
Skeleton of EdmontosaurusCrystalline gold from Farncomb Hill, near Breckenridge, Colorado.Saber Tooth Coin Display at Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Expedition Health
Expedition Health teaches visitors about the human body, including the science of taste.[13] It opened on March 30, 2009, replacing the former Hall of Life.
Space Odyssey
Space Odyssey, which opened in 2003 and underwent a refurbishment in 2020, is about the Universe and our place in it. One major highlight of the exhibit is a full-scale replica of a Mars Exploration Rover, which was formerly found outside the exhibit from around 2004 to around 2016 or 2017.
The Wildlife Halls are animal dioramas showing scenes of daily life of many different animals, one of the largest collections of its type in North America. The Wildlife Halls in the museum are:
Level 3 Wildlife Halls:
Birds of the Americas
Species and locations represented in Birds of the Americas
Out of all of the dioramas in the museum listed here, only one, Western Brazil,[15] which depicted wildlife on the Brazilian savanna, was removed for not being scientifically accurate, because it included animals that didn't naturally interact with each other in the wild.[16] However, at least three pieces of evidence that prove that the diorama did exist can be found in the museum: one being a cropped image of the screenshot of the diorama's brocket deer from the museum's 1961 annual report in Edge of the Wild, and the other two being the scarlet macaw and blue-fronted parrot found in the glass case at South America's entry wall.
Insects & Butterflies
Insects & Butterflies is a wildlife exhibit on the first floor that's separated into four displays: Pinning Down Insects, which classifies the different groups of arthropods and features the twelve common orders of insects; Deceits & Defenses, which shows different insects that have their own ways of defending themselves, as well as including a miniature diorama depicting a foothills shrubland with many hidden insects; Colorado Lepidoptera, which features 171 species of butterflies and moths found in Colorado including the Colorado hairstreak, Colorado's state insect; and Form Follows Function, which shows the life cycle of a mourning cloak butterfly, a small collection of rainforest butterflies, and two species of Morpho butterflies next to a model of scales from one of the wings of a blue morpho.
Egyptian Mummies
Egyptian Mummies contains two mummies, along with several coffins and other various antiquities from ancient Egypt. In both 1991 and 2016, the mummies were subjected to CT scans at Children's Hospital in Aurora, Colorado.[17][18] Also on display is a miniature temple, based on one from the time of King Ramses II.
Coors Gems & Minerals
Coors Gems & Minerals is a hall where visitors can examine many colorful crystals and minerals found both locally and globally. It features a re-created mine based on the Sweet Home mine, where the Alma King, the largest specimen of rhodochrosite exhibited near the entrance, was originally found on August 21, 1992. It is also home to the museum's oldest exhibit: crystallized leaf gold, which was donated in 1900, the same year the museum was founded.
Konovalenko Gem Carvings
The museum features the only public collection of gem carvings by the Ukrainian-born Soviet artist Vasily Konovalenko outside of Moscow,[19] located on the third floor within the South American Wildlife Hall.
Crane Hall of North American Indian Cultures
The Crane Hall of North American Indian Cultures is currently closed for renovations
Ancient Denver
Ancient Denver, a series of paintings by local artists that depict the Denver area from 300 million years ago to the present.[20]
In addition to the exhibit halls, skeletons of Tyrannosaurus rex, a pair of Thalassomedon and a fin whale, as well as a replica of the Chief Kyan totem pole, can be found in the rotunda. A display that shows how escalators work is also found at one of the two up escalators on the first floor.
The Anthropology Collection contains over 50,000 objects and is made up of archaeological and ethnological artifacts from North America. The department also curates collections from Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Additional holdings include the 800-piece Ethnological Art Collection, and archival photographs and documents. The department is fully committed to compliance with the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and all other national and international laws that impact anthropological objects.
Earth Sciences Collection consists of six main groups: vertebrate paleontology, paleobotany, invertebrate paleontology, minerals, meteorites, and micromount.
Health Sciences Collection is composed of rare and unique human anatomy specimens, as well as a small selection of pieces of medical importance.
Space Sciences Lab is responsible for the museum's Scientific Instruments Collection. This collection is composed of instruments that have been used by museum staff members or are excellent type-examples of particular instruments. In addition, the Department of Space Sciences maintains a large digital collection of images and multimedia assets (presentations, video, visualizations) of use in research, public programs, and Space Odyssey.
Zoology Collection houses over 900,000 specimens or specimen lots (groups of specimens) including over 40,000 vials of arachnids (spiders and their relatives), over 780,000 insects, especially the orders Coleoptera (the beetles) and Lepidoptera (the butterflies and moths), 17,000 shell lots representing shells from all over the world, approximately 52,000 bird specimens, including a significant nest and egg collection, over 14,000 specimens of mammals, including several threatened or endangered species and several species now considered extinct. The small botany collection includes over 2,500 specimens representing 130 families. Specimens records are published, via Arctos[21] and Symbiota, to data portals such as SCAN, ORNIS,[22] MANIS,[23] VertNet,[24] GBIF,[25] GenBank,[26] and BISON.[27]
Bailey Library and Archives focuses on anthropology, earth sciences, health sciences, space sciences, zoology, the Rocky Mountain West, and museum studies. It contains over 53,000 publications, 2,500 rare books, and 9,000 volumes of scientific periodicals.[28]
Selection of temporary exhibits
The museum features temporary exhibits from other museums. Temporary exhibits tend to be at the museum for a period of around six months. Exhibitions the museum have featured in that past include
Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed, a large exhibit covering art, culture, astronomy, religion, ball games and warfare, as well as potential reasons for the collapse of the Mayan empire.[29][30]
Whales: Giants of the Deep, an exhibit that originated in New Zealand, where there was a large whale-fishing industry. The exhibit includes whale skulls and skeletons, videos, cultural artifacts, and "explaration stations".[31]
Traveling the Silk Road, artifacts from the ancient trade route, from Xi’an, the imperial city of China's Tang Dynasty, to Istanbul.[32][33]
Gates Planetarium
Gates Planetarium is a 125-seat planetarium that features unidirectional, semi-reclining stadium seating, 16.4 surround-sound system featuring Ambisonic, a 3-D spatial sound system, and a perforated metal dome, 56ft (17m) in diameter and tilted 25 degrees. The current planetarium replaces an older, dome-style planetarium.[34]
The Infinity Theater on the second floor of the museum was built as the Phipps Auditorium in 1940, and was used for lectures, concerts, and films until 1980. Renovated and reopened in 1983 as the Phipps IMAX Theater, it seats 440 people and now shows large-format films daily.
In July 2022, the Phipps IMAX Theater was closed for renovations[35] for sound, visual, and lobby. The theater is now open as of February 2023 and gave it the new name of "Infinity Theater".[36] It is now a state of the art theater suitable for all types of visual enjoyment.
Morgridge Family Exploration Center and Avenir Collections Facility
In 2014, a $70 million addition was added to the museum containing the Morgridge Family Exploration Center and the Avenir Collections Center.[37]
The Morgridge Family Exploration Center constitutes three above-ground levels that encourage visitors to learn about science and the natural world. The center includes Exploration Studios, a new temporary exhibition gallery, an atrium space, a completely-redeveloped Discovery Zone for early learners, and the outdoor, Boettcher Plaza with unique public art.
The Avenir Collections Center, part of a $70 million expansion in 2007, is a climate-controlled facility devoted to housing for nearly 1.5 million artifacts and specimens. The facility includes 63,000 square feet (5,900m2) in two underground levels, and holds specimens such as bison from the 1870s, passenger pigeons, the last grizzly bear to be killed in Colorado in 1979, and roadkill brought in by the public. The data from these specimens is placed in online databases, and linked to public databases, like BioPortal.[38][39]
Museum secrets
The museum contains a number of hidden secrets that visitors may search for. On the Denver Museum website, there are four different downloadable scavenger hunts available, ranging from State Parks to "Museum Treasures".[40] Kent Pendleton, one of the museum's diorama painters, painted eight elves in his work, hidden throughout the museum. Guests are encouraged to search for the elves with one of the printable scavenger hunts.[41][42]
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.
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational and scientific programs, and its extensive scientific specimen and artifact collections. The permanent exhibitions, which attract up to 2 million visitors annually, include fossils, current cultures from around the world, and interactive programming demonstrating today's urgent conservation needs. The museum is named in honor of its first major benefactor, Marshall Field, the department-store magnate. The museum and its collections originated from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the artifacts displayed at the fair.
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 20 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and a library. The museum collections contain about 32 million specimens of plants, animals, fungi, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, as well as specialized collections for frozen tissue and genomic and astrophysical data, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time. The museum occupies more than 2,500,000 sq ft (232,258 m2). AMNH has a full-time scientific staff of 225, sponsors over 120 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually.
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes it is enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle modeling, miniature figure modeling, or aircraft modeling.
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 second most-visited museum in the United States.
Carl Ethan Akeley was a pioneering American taxidermist, sculptor, biologist, conservationist, inventor, and nature photographer, noted for his contributions to American museums, most notably to the Milwaukee Public Museum, Field Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. He is considered the father of modern taxidermy. He was the founder of the AMNH Exhibitions Lab, the interdisciplinary department that fuses scientific research with immersive design.
The Putnam Museum and Science Center, formerly Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, is a museum of history and natural science and a science center in Davenport, Iowa, United States. The museum was founded in 1867, and was one of the first museums west of the Mississippi River. It houses 160,000 historical artifacts and specimens and a giant screen theater. It is located at 1717 West 12th Street, at the corner of Division and West 12th Street on "museum hill," near Fejervary Park. It is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. 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.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Santa Barbara, California.
The Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) is a museum of human and natural history in Downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, located north of City Hall. The museum is the largest in western Canada with more than 7,600 square metres (82,000 sq ft) exhibition space and 38,900 square metres (419,000 sq ft) in total.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science is a natural history museum located on the northern border of Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, United States. The museum was established in 1909 by the Houston Museum and Scientific Society, an organization whose goals were to provide a free institution for the people of Houston focusing on education and science. The museum complex consists of a central facility with four floors of natural science halls and exhibits, the Burke Baker Planetarium, the Cockrell Butterfly Center, and the Wortham Giant Screen Theatre. In 2022, the museum received 1,520,000 visitors, making it seventh on the List of most-visited museums in the United States, and was the third most-visited U.S. science museum. Much of the museum's popularity is attributed to its large number of special or guest exhibits.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) is a museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. The museum is the oldest in the state.
The San Diego Natural History Museum is a museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History. It is the second oldest scientific institution west of the Mississippi and the oldest in Southern California. The present location of the museum was dedicated on January 14, 1933. A major addition to the museum was dedicated in April 2001, doubling exhibit space.
The Bell Museum, formerly known as the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History, is located at the University of Minnesota's Saint Paul campus. The museum's current location on the Saint Paul campus opened in 2018. The Minnesota wildlife dioramas showcase animal specimens from around the world. The museum also houses the digital Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Planetarium. The museum is part of the university's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. The museum's former location on University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus closed in January 2017.
The Anniston Museum of Natural History is a museum in Lagarde Park, Anniston, Alabama, exhibiting more than 2,000 natural history items on permanent display, including minerals, fossils, and rare animals in open dioramas.
The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City, Iowa. The museum was founded in 1858 by instruction of the Iowa General Assembly as the Cabinet of Natural History. It is housed within Macbride Hall, located in the Pentacrest area of the university campus. The museum's collections contain around 140,000 objects, including approximately 31,000 birds, eggs, and nests, 5,000 mammal specimens, 41,000 insects, 44,000 other invertebrates, 6,000 archaeological specimens, and historical documents and images from the museum's history. The museum includes several galleries on Iowa's geological and cultural history, biological diversity, and environmental science, spanning four floors. Major research collections include the Kallam Collection of prehistoric stone tools, the Talbot and Jones Bird Collections, the Frank Russell Collection of Inuit and Native Arctic artifacts, and the Philippine Collection of ethnographic materials from the 1904 World's Fair.
Martha Ann Maxwell was an American naturalist, artist and taxidermist. She helped found modern taxidermy. Maxwell's pioneering diorama displays are said to have influenced major figures in taxidermy history who entered the field later, such as William Temple Hornaday and Carl Akeley. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1831. Among her many accomplishments, she is credited with being the first woman field naturalist to obtain and prepare her own specimens. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985.
Booth Museum of Natural History is a charitable trust managed, municipally-owned museum of natural history in the city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England. Its focus is on Victorian taxidermy, especially of British birds, as well as collections focusing on entomology, chalk fossils, skeletons and botany. It is part of "Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust". Admission to the museum is free.
The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History (UMMNH) is a natural history museum of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.
Vasily Vasilivich Konovalenko was a Soviet artist, known for creating unique three dimensional gemstone sculptures.
References
↑ TEA-AECOM Museum Index for 2022, published March 2023
↑ "SCFD and the Museum". dmns.org. Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Archived from the original on July 31, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
↑ YESENIA ROBLES (February 1, 2010). "Denver Museum of Nature & Science gets largest donation ever". The Denver Post. Retrieved August 15, 2016. ...The Denver Museum of Nature and Science has received an $8 million gift, the largest donation in its 109-year history...
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
