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Current Exhibitions
Ground Floor:
Birds of D.C.
Exhibit: Permanent
Brandishing their fine plumage, the birds in these cases have helped generations of visitors identify local species. Year-round and seasonal residents, migrants and vagrants--hundreds of species in all--are displayed here. Yellow Warbler
Darwin's Legacy
Location: Ground Floor, Constitution Avenue Lobby Cases
Exhibit: September 10, 2009 – October 17, 2010
November 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking On the Origin of Species. His theory of evolution by natural selection grew out of his work as a naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle on a five year journey around South America and the Galápagos Islands. Darwin’s theory soon found supporters at the Smithsonian, including Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and it continues to guide research at the National Museum of Natural History.
The Evolution Trail
Location: Throughout the Museum
Exhibit: December 2008 - Permanent
Why are dinosaurs extinct? Why do giraffes have long necks? Why do flowers come in many colors? Follow Iggy the Iguana on the Evolution Trail throughout the Museum and find the answers to these and other questions. Explore the exhibits to discover how environmental changes, natural selection, extinction, and other factors play a part in the ongoing process of evolution. Iggy the Iguana marks stops on the Evolution Trail
First Floor:
African Elephant
Exhibit: Permanent
His trunk raised in alert, this male African elephant seems to sense your presence. Like humans, elephants have complex social systems. They live in extended family groups led by mature females, who teach and nurture the young. So, if you meet your family "by the elephant," remember that they also meet, grow, learn, and cooperate in groups.
African Voices
Exhibit: Permanent
Examines the diversity, dynamism, and global influence of Africa's peoples and cultures over time in the realms of family, work, community, and the natural environment.
The Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals
Exhibit: Permanent
Invites visitors to explore the incredible diversity of mammals, including humans, and the processes by which they arose and continue to adapt. Features 274 exciting mammals and dozens of fossils in a variety of environments.
Discovery Room
Educational Facility: Permanent
The Discovery Room is a unique educational facility for families and students. The room features activities using real Museum objects and interactive, hands-on experiences that allow visitors to explore the natural world at their own pace, guided by their own interests and sense of wonder.
Dinosaurs/Hall of Paleobiology
Exhibit: Permanent
How did life and all its wondrous forms come about? The story begins almost 3.5 billion years ago and unfolds in this exhibit. Exhibit includes Dinosaurs, Life in the Ancient Seas, Fossil Mammals and Fossil Plants
Discovering Rastafari!
Exhibit: November 2, 2007 - November 2010
Using artifacts, rare photographs, and ephemera to explore the origins and religious practices of the movement in Jamaica, this exhibition takes viewers beyond the popular Jamaican music known as reggae to the deeper roots of the Rastafari culture. Video footage featuring first-person testimony from male and female Rastafari of different ages, nationalities, and racial and class backgrounds speak to Rastafari of unity and to the spread of the movement across the Caribbean and beyond over the past three decades.
FossiLab
Exhibit: Permanent
This glass enclosed lab allows visitors to watch museum paleontologists and trained volunteers extract fossils from rock and construct fossil casts and molds.
Nature's Best Photography Show 2009
Location: Second Floor
Exhibit: November 12, 2009 - May 2, 2010
On view will be winners in 19 categories from the 2009 Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards, including the Grand Prize, Conservation Photographer of the Year, Youth Photographer of the Year, and selected Highly Honored images. The annual awards honor the best amateur and professional nature photographers from around the world
The Sant Ocean Hall
Location: First Floor
Exhibit: Permanent
A one-of-a-kind interpretive exhibit, extraordinary in scale, the Sant Ocean Hall presents the global ocean from a cross-disciplinary perspective, highlighting the biological, geological, and anthropological expertise and unparalleled scientific collections of the Museum, as well as ongoing research in marine science. The ocean is intrinsically connected to other global systems and to our daily lives. Artist rendering of the Sant Ocean Hall
Since Darwin: The Evolution of Evolution
Location: First Floor
Exhibit: September 12, 2009 – July 18, 2010
Celebrate with us the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his groundbreaking On the Origin of Species. This exhibition focuses on the significant role that Darwin’s theories have played in explaining and unifying all the biological sciences. Specimens from the Museum’s diverse collections, along with documentation from our ongoing research, illustrate the importance of evolution as a scientific foundation, and how our knowledge of evolution has evolved over the last 150 years.
Second Floor:
A Rare Encounter: Hope Diamond and Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond
Location: Second Floor, Harry Winston Gallery
Exhibit: January 29 - August 1, 2010
Come and see the world's most extraordinary blue diamonds - the Hope and the Wittelsbach-Graff - displayed together for the first time. The Wittelsbach-Graff's deep blue color, flawless clarity, and royal history make it one of the most celebrated gemstones known. Its story goes back over 340 years, and the diamond has not appeared in public for more than 50 years. Both diamonds come from India and share their rare blue color. Could they have come from the same mine? Smithsonian scientists plan to compare the properties of both gems and explore this intriguing possibility.
Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution
Exhibit: Permanent
This immersive exhibit explores the processes and patterns of evolution, and provides our visitors with an exciting new kind of experience in the Museum of Natural History - a walk-through living butterfly house. We will invite visitors to observe the many ways in which butterflies and other animals have evolved, adapted, and diversified together with their plant partners over tens of millions of years.Artist rendering of Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution
The Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals
Exhibit: Permanent
Explore the museum's unparalleled specimens of gems, minerals, rocks and meteorites. Highlights include the Hope Diamond, the National Gem Collection, the Mine and Rocks Galleries, the Plate Tectonics Gallery and the Moon, Meteorites and the Solar System Gallery.
The Carmen Lúcia Ruby
Exhibit: Permanent
This spectacular 23.1 carat Burmese ruby was recently donated to the Museum by Peter Buck in memory of his late wife, Carmen Lúcia Buck. Mined from the fabled Mogok region of Burma, the ruby possesses a richly saturated homogenous red color combined with an exceptional degree of transparency.
Western Cultures Hall
Exhibit: Permanent
The institutions, traditions and ideals of North American cultures are deeply rooted in those of western Asia, northern Africa, and Europe. This hall explores some examples from various cultures in the western world including northern Iraq, ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome and the recent discovery of the Iceman, a Copper Age mummy found in an Italian glacier.
Korea Gallery
Exhibit: Permanent
This new exhibition presents Korea's millennia of history and its distinctive culture through ceramics, paintings, textiles and sculptures, ranging from the 6th century B.C. to the 21st century. Thematic areas of the exhibit include: Korean ceramics, Honoring family, The Korean wedding, Hangeul (the Korean writing system), Korea's natural and built landscapes, Koreans overseas, and Korea's visual arts today.Tiger, magpie, pine, and sacred fungus. Late 19th century.
Osteology: Hall of Bones
Exhibit: Permanent
Who has bones? Fishes, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals do. In our Osteology Hall you can observe a variety of vertebrate skeletons grouped by their evolutionary relationships. You can compare a human and gorilla, bone for bone. Count the number of neck vertebrae in a human and a giraffe. Observe skeletal features that are unique to reptiles or to fish.
The O. Orkin Insect Zoo
Educational Facility: Permanent
Visitors can observe live insects and other arthropods at the O. Orkin Insect Zoo. Volunteers conduct tarantula feeding demonstrations, work with live insects, and answer questions about the many-legged creatures that live in the Insect Zoo.
Reptiles and Amphibians
Exhibit: Permanent
Preserved reptiles and amphibians await you around every corner in this hall. Learn about their eating habits, defenses, and locomotion. Reptiles on display include Galapagos marine iguanas, sea turtles, snakes, crocodiles, and lizards.
Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake
Location: Second Floor
Exhibit: February 7, 2009 – January 6, 2013
Human anatomy and forensic investigation provide intriguing information on people and events of America's past. This exhibition will examine history through 17th-century bone biographies, including those of colonists teetering on the edge of survival at Jamestown, Virginia, and those of wealthy and well-established individuals of St. Mary’s City, Maryland. At no other time in our history have we had the technological capability or opportunity that are now available to help us tell this tale.
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