Don’t wait for a rainy afternoon to spend several hours visiting the Harvard Museum of Natural History. As part of one of the United States’ oldest universities, the museum serves not only as an exhibit of the current state of the sciences, but also of its history. Created as an amalgamation of the Herbaria, Mineralogical Museum and the Museum of Comparative Zoology founded by the legendary Harvard scientist Louis Agassiz, it brings together an enormous and historical collection of animals, minerals, gems, dinosaurs and glass models.
Start in the Glass Flowers exhibit, recently supplemented by the Sea Creatures in Glass, a collection of Blaschka botanical models built in the 1890s by a father-son team. Lean in close to view the tiny, perfect details on each of the hand-blown pieces, which perfectly recreate a wide variety of flowers, plants and marine invertebrates.
Continue on to the mineral gallery, where more than 3,000 examples of rocks from across the world include sparkling gems and flinty shale.
See species from all parts of the planet in the Great Mammal Hall, where whales swim overhead as giraffes, lemurs and sloths stalk behind glass cases. Finally, in the paleontology exhibit, marvel at the enormous size of the world’s only mounted Kronosaurus, which measures 42 feet (13 meters) in length. Look for the first Triceratops skull ever discovered.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History is located in the back of Harvard’s campus, nestled among the university’s science buildings. Walk from Harvard Square, which has the closest MBTA stop, in about 10 minutes, or from the Harvard Art Museums in 8 minutes. In addition to the subway, which connects Harvard Square with Boston, several buses travel in the vicinity to other parts of Cambridge. Downtown Boston is a 20-minute drive away. A limited number of metered spaces are available on the streets near the museum these are free on Sundays.
The museum is open daily during regular business hours. Ticketed admission also provides access to the nearby Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
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