Harvard Museum of Natural History

Harvard Museum of Natural History Review

Many museums promise something for every member of the family; the vast Harvard Museum complex actually delivers. Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz, who founded the zoology museum, envisioned a museum that would bring under one roof the study of all kinds of life: plants, animals, and humankind. The result is three distinct museums, all accessible for one admission fee.

The Museum of Comparative Zoology traces the evolution of animals and humans. You literally can't miss the 42-foot-long skeleton of the underwater Kronosaurus. Dinosaur fossils and a zoo of stuffed exotic animals can occupy young minds for hours. The museum is old-fashioned. You can almost feel the brush of the whiskers of the ardent explorers and the naturalists who combed the world for these treasures. It's also the right size for kids—not jazzy and busy, a good place to ask and answer quiet questions. Check the Web site for children's events and special engagements, which occur throughout the year.

Oversize garnets and crystals sparkle at the Mineralogical and Geological Museum, founded in 1784. The museum also contains an extensive collection of meteorites.

Perhaps the most famous exhibits of the museum complex are the glass flowers in the Harvard University Herbaria (Botanical Museum), created as teaching tools that would never wither and die. This unique collection holds 3,000 models of 847 plant species. Each one is a masterpiece, meticulously created in glass by a father and son in Dresden, Germany, who worked continuously from 1887 to 1936. Even more amazing than the colorful flower petals are the delicate roots of some plants; numerous signs assure the viewer that everything is, indeed, of glass.