Fodor's Expert Review Harvard Museum of Natural History

The Harvard Museum of Natural History (which exhibits specimens from the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Harvard University Herbaria, and the Mineralogical and Geological Museum) reminds us nature is the original masterpiece. Cases are packed with zoological specimens, from tiny hummingbirds and deer mice to rare Indian rhinoceroses and one of the largest Amazon pirarucu ever caught. View fossils and skeletons alongside marvelous minerals, including a 1,600-pound amethyst geode. Harvard's world-famous Blaschka Glass Flowers collection is a creative approach to flora, with more than 4,300 hand-blown glass plant models. The museum combines historic exhibits drawn from the university's vast collections with new and changing multimedia exhibitions, such as In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss and Lily Simonson: Painting the Deep, plus a renovated Earth & Planetary Sciences gallery.