The Harvard Museum of Natural History will open for limited in-person visitation solely for Harvard faculty, students, and staff with a valid Harvard ID starting September 1, 2021. Guests of Harvard ID holders are not allowed at this time. Harvard Faculty who wish to schedule a class visit may contact the HMNH Reservations Department.
Exhibitions
Africa
Visitors can see impressive mounted specimens of African wildlife collected over a century ago, including a hippopotamus, lion, ostrich, hyena, gorilla, and a variety of rare animals from the island of Madagascar. An interactive video display highlights endangered species.
Arthropods: Creatures That Rule
Featuring hands-on activities, dramatic specimen displays, colorful video and graphics, and even live specimens, this exhibition draws on the latest scientific research to explore arthropods' extraordinary evolutionary success and their impact on our lives.
Asia
This gallery features mounted wildlife specimens from Asia. It includes a rare Indian rhinoceros, Siberian and Bengal tigers, and a cheetah.
Birds of the World
On the balcony encircling the museum's Great Mammal Hall, the Birds of the World gallery captures the extraordinary diversity of birds with many hundreds of stunning specimens that represent over 200 different bird families.
Cenozoic Mammals
This gallery features fossils from the Cenozoic Era, also known as the Age of Mammals. It was marked by the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Central and South America
This gallery features mounted wildlife specimens from Central and South America. The exhibit includes a jaguar, tapir, sloth, giant armadillo, a large wall of hummingbirds, and a seven-foot Amazon pirarucu, one of the largest ever caught.
Climate Change
Recently redesigned and updated, this exhibition draws on the latest scientific information about our warming climate, the global and local consequences, how to reduce fossil-fuel emissions that cause it, and how to prepare for its effects.
Earth & Planetary Sciences
This expansive gallery displays thousands of rare rock and mineral specimens, sparkling gemstones, a 1,600-pound amethyst geode, meteorites, and much more about the processes and events that have shaped Earth's evolution.
Evolution
Evolution offers a behind-the-scenes look at ongoing evolution research at Harvard, from exciting new discoveries about human origins, to surprising insights from new genetic and developmental studies on Darwin's finches.
Fruits in Decay
Fruits in Decay is a special exhibit in the Glass Flowers gallery that explores blight, rot, and other diseases on summer fruits.
Glass Flowers
One of Harvard University’s most famous treasures is the internationally acclaimed Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, better known as the “Glass Flowers." This unique collection was made by Leopold (1822-1895) and Rudolf Blaschka (1857-1939), a father and son team of Czech glass artists. Over fifty years, from 1886 through 1936, the Blaschkas produced 4,300 glass models that represent 780 plant species.
Great Mammal Hall
The Great Mammal Hall, an expansive two-story gallery (60 ft. by 40 ft.), is the most dramatic gallery in the museum. It displays a large selection of mammals from a full-size giraffe and whale skeletons suspended from the ceiling to the smallest of creatures. The second-story balcony houses the Birds of the World exhibit.
Lily Simonson: Painting the Deep
This exhibit presents six original mural-sized paintings that literally glow with luminescent pigments and together create an immersive visual experience, giving form to a hidden alien universe.
Marine Life
This exhibit immerses visitors in the remarkable diversity and dynamic interplay among animals in marine communities just off New England shores.
Microbial Life
This exhibit takes visitors on a journey into the fascinating, invisible realm where bacteria and other microbes bustle about their lives, interacting with one another and with organisms of all sizes in every corner of the globe.
New England Forests
New England Forests in the Zofnass Family Gallery is a multi-media exhibition that explores the natural history and ecology of this region’s forests.
Orb-Weavers
This smaller-scale exhibit in the Arthropods gallery examines the evolution of the orb spider web and explores how capture strategies used by its arachnid builders have shaped orb web design.
The Rockefeller Beetles
This smaller-scale exhibit in the Arthropods gallery features hundreds of specimens from banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller’s collection and recounts the story of a man whose childhood pursuit grew into a lifelong passion.
Romer Hall of Vertebrate Paleontology
This exhibition showcases the evolutionary history of vertebrates, including spectacularly preserved fishes, dinosaurs, and early mammals.
Sea Creatures in Glass
Many years before they were commissioned by Harvard University to make the renowned Glass Flowers, father and son artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka meticulously shaped glass into lifelike models of marine and terrestrial animals for universities and museums throughout the world in the nineteenth century.
Exhibit Videos
Explore short videos featured in our galleries.
Online Exhibitions
Face to Face
This exhibit showcases Jana Matusz's striking portraits of animal specimens, in which the use of color and texture gives a voice and life to them.
What's in a Name?
This exhibit includes four interactive kiosks embedded into existing exhibits. Explore how different organisms are named. Learn more on the What's in a Name website and download the free e-book.
Islands: Evolving in Isolation
This online exhibit is an exploration of evolution on islands that highlights the latest research and discoveries made by Harvard scientists.
