News

Ants and Termites: Nature’s Super Organisms opens in the Harvard Museum of Natural History Arthropods gallery

March 15, 2024

The new gallery explores these superorganisms’ intersecting history, biology, and behavior

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 15, 2024— Arthropods: Creatures That Rule is a popular gallery in the Harvard Museum of Natural History that draws on Harvard research to explore arthropods’ extraordinary evolutionary success. It features a wide array of preserved creatures and live specimens. Ants and Termites: Nature’s Super Organisms, opening March 16th, is a brand-new addition to...

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Swimming with Sharks: A Deep Dive into Shark Biology and Behavior reveals the mysterious lives of sharks in the wild

November 3, 2022

The exhibition opens November 12 at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., November 3, 2022—Nearly half a billion years ago, the first ancestors of a remarkable group of fishes exploded from the ocean’s tree of life, forever transforming the world’s marine ecosystems. Equipped with lighter cartilage instead of denser bone, armed with microscopic skin teeth instead of scales, and optimized for speed and mobility in a variety of habitats, sharks are an evolutionary success story pivotal for maintaining the health of...

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Henry David Thoreau’s vast botanical collection inspires the new exhibition In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss

April 20, 2022

The visually compelling and immersive exhibition opens May 14 at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 20, 2022—A close reflection on Henry David Thoreau’s legacy brings into sharper focus his deep commitment to environmental conservation and civil disobedience, as well as his trove of treasured poems and essays. His decision to make his home at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts solidified Thoreau’s devotion in his role as a naturalist. Through his close relationship with the woods of Walden he observed the ebb and flow...

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The Harvard Museum of Natural History Picks Seasonal “Fruits in Decay” as the New Focus of the Glass Flowers Gallery

August 7, 2019

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., August 7, 2019— Imagine an orchard, lush and bursting with ripe fruit in the sweltering summer sun. Not all of the fruit weighing down the branches and vines will be fit to consume. Some strawberries will dampen and shrivel with mold, some peaches will be blighted in the shade, and some pears will become pockmarked with age.

However, there is a beauty in this natural decaying process that repeats with each season. Perhaps the rot...

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The Harvard Museum of Natural History Presents a New Climate Change Exhibit Exploring the Global Impact of the Warming Climate on the Planet

January 31, 2019

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., January 31— The Harvard Museum of Natural History announces the new Climate Change exhibit that draws on the latest scientific information about our warming climate, the global and local consequences, and how to both reduce the fossil fuel emissions that cause it and prepare for its effects. 

This multimedia exhibit includes engaging video and storm simulations, a “check your knowledge” interactive station, and a dramatic inside look at a high-tech Argo float...

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The Rockefeller Beetles Exhibit Opens Saturday, October 20, 2018 at Harvard Museum of Natural History

September 10, 2018

“The collection is superb, worldwide, and the biggest collection ever donated to Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology as far as we know,” said the MCZ’s entomology curator Brian D. Farrell.

Over the span of 90 years, banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller collected beetles from around the world, eventually building a personal collection of more than 150,000 specimens. In 2017, his...

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Harvard Museum of Natural History Admission Rates Increase September 4, 2018

August 1, 2018

Effective September 4, 2018, the admission price at the Harvard Museum of Natural History will increase. The new admission rates are: adults, $15; seniors (65 and over), $13; college students and youth (3-18 years old), $10.

Rates for groups of ten or more will also increase: Adults, $12.00; Seniors: $10.00; Non-Harvard college students: $7.00. Youth (ages 3–18) admission rates will remain unchanged at $7.00.

Admission is free for Massachusetts residents who present Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards at the admission...

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Lily Simonson: Painting the Deep Exhibition to Open June 30, 2018 at Harvard Museum of Natural History

May 17, 2018

(CAMBRIDGE, MA) Glowing under black lights, California artist Lily Simonson’s luminescent paintings embody a synergy between art and science that reveals new ways of seeing and understanding life forms in the deep ocean.

“Being in the deep sea feels like being inside of a painting,” says Simonson, who embedded as an artist-in-residence on three different oceanographic...

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“Microbial Life: A Universe at the Edge of Sight” Exhibition to open February 17, 2018 at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

December 18, 2017

(CAMBRIDGE, MA) Thriving all around, and even within us, is a minute universe of astonishing and diverse lifeforms so small, they cannot be seen by the human eye. Microbial Life: A Universe at the Edge of Sight explores the fascinating realm of microbes, Earth’s first inhabitants, as they continue to engage with the planet’s biosphere in ways science is only beginning to uncover and understand.... Read more about “Microbial Life: A Universe at the Edge of Sight” Exhibition to open February 17, 2018 at the Harvard Museum of Natural History