SI NMNH Centennial - Life in the Museum

It takes many different people to do the work of the National Museum of Natural History. There are curators and scientists, taxidermists, exhibit specialists, collection managers, librarians, security officers, insect zoo keepers, educators, illustrators, and more.

Come behind the scenes with us and meet the man who has studied the oldest known object on earth (a meteorite 4.5 billion years old!), the person whose job it was to repair the giant elephant in the Rotunda, and many of the other individuals who make this such a unique place.

G. Arthur Cooper: An Expert in Paleozoic Fossils

Teddy Roosevelt and his connection to the Smithsonian

Spencer Baird and the Smithsonian Fish Collection

The Invertebrate Zoology Department, One of the Oldest Scientific Units of the Smithsonian

William F. Foshag: Expert in the Mineralogy and Geology of Mexico

Herbert Friedmann: An Expert in Parasitic Birds

Alexander Wetmore: Ornithologist and Sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian

Watson M. Perrygo: Taxidermist and Field-Collector

Robert Kennicott (1835-1866): Early Smithsonian Scientific Explorer and Collector

A Century of Whales at the Smithsonian Institution

Leonard Peter Schultz (1901-1986): Ichthyologist and Field Naturalist

New Oral Histories from the NMNH 100th

Mary Agnes Chase: Activist and Renowned Expert on Grasses

Tichkematse: A Cheyenne Indian at the Smithsonian in the 19th Century

Explore Our History

Stories from the Museum