{{short description|Natural history museum in Michigan, United States}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox museum | logo = University of Michigan Museum of Natural History logo with background.png | image = Male & female mastodons, front.jpg | caption = The museum's signature mastodon skeletons, on display in the main atrium | former_name = Exhibit Museum, Exhibit Museum of Natural History | established = 1956 | location = Ann Arbor, Michigan, US | type = Natural history museum | website = {{official url}} }}
The '''University of Michigan Museum of Natural History''' ('''UMMNH,''' formerly known as the '''Exhibit Museum''' and '''Exhibit Museum of Natural History''') is a natural history museum of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The university's natural history collections date to 1837, and have been on display since 1881. The current museum was founded in 1956, and is operated by the university's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
The university's natural history collection was housed in the '''Alexander G. Ruthven Museums Building''' from 1928 to 2017, when preparations began to move the museum to the new Biological Sciences Building on the university's Central Campus. The museum has over 45,000 square feet of exhibit space, and offers free admission to the general public.<ref name=":0">{{cite news| last=Hodges |first=Michael H. |date=April 12, 2019 |title=UM Museum of Natural History shines in new home |url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/life/2019/04/12/um-museum-natural-history-shines-new-home/3426398002/ | newspaper=The Detroit News }}</ref>
==History== {{Infobox NRHP | name = Alexander G. Ruthven Museums Building | nrhp_type = cp | nocat = yes | image = University Museums Building, ca. 1928 - BL006277.jpg | caption = View of the building, looking east, 1928. The street to the left is now a pedestrian pathway. | location = | area = | built = | architect = Albert Kahn | architecture = | designated_nrhp_type = June 15, 1978 | partof = University of Michigan Central Campus Historic District | partof_refnum = 78001514 | governing_body = | website = }} The university's natural history collections began in 1837, and the first formal museum for their exhibit was established in 1881. In 1925, the state legislature appropriated $900,000 ({{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=900000|start_year=1925|r=-5|fmt=eq}}) for the construction of a new museum building, which would house researchers' offices and public exhibits. The new University Museums Building was completed in 1928, and housed museums of anthropology, paleontology and zoology, and a herbarium. The first public exhibits in the new building opened in the winter of 1929.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="History" /> thumb|Front entrance of the Ruthven Building in 1940, with the newly-installed pumas The University Museums Building was built with two pedestals at its main entrance for sculptures, but none were installed at the time of its construction. In 1940, two sculptures of pumas, designed by Carleton W. Angell and cast in terrazzo, were created. The pumas were cast by the Detroit unit of the Works Progress Administration to Angell's design, and installation was complete by August 1940.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Angell |first=Carleton W. |date=1940-08-17 |title="Two Black Lions" Now Guard Entrance |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015071120920?urlappend=%3Bseq=7 |journal=The Michigan Alumnus |volume=46 |issue=25 |pages=543–544 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015071120920?urlappend=%3Bseq=7 |access-date=2025-01-08}}</ref> The building was renamed after Alexander G. Ruthven, director of the museum and later president of the university.<ref name=":1" />
The public exhibit museum was founded in 1956, following a reorganization of the university's science departments. A planetarium was added in 1959,<ref name="History">{{cite web |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=History |url=http://www.lsa.umich.edu/ummnh/about/history |access-date=10 April 2015 |website=University of Michigan Museum of Natural History |publisher=}}</ref> and the building was expanded in 1964.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Sommers |first=Laurie K. |date=1977 |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form: University of Michigan Central Campus Historic District |series=Records of the National Park Service |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/25340637 |access-date=2025-01-08}}</ref>
The museum closed to the public in 2017 to move its collection to the new Biological Sciences Building, constructed adjacent to the Ruthven building on the university's Central Campus. The new building includes classrooms, researchers' offices, and the museum's exhibit spaces. The relocated museum reopened in 2019.<ref name=":0" />
The museum is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. In 2019, it employed 23 full-time staff and over 50 paid student docents.<ref name=":0" />
==Exhibits== The museum has four major permanent exhibits:
* '''The Hall of Evolution''' on the second floor displays exhibits on evolution and prehistoric life, including fossils, models, and dioramas of dinosaurs, ancient whales, mastodons, and other organisms. It is the largest collection on prehistoric life in Michigan. * '''The Michigan Wildlife Gallery''' on the third floor displays exhibits on birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, plants, and fungi native to the Great Lakes. There are taxidermy specimens, exhibits on habitats, and displays about regional environmental problems. A mastodon trackway, the largest on display in the world, is part of this exhibit. * '''The Anthropology Displays''' feature exhibits on anthropology, and include artifacts from human cultures around the world. * '''The Geology Displays''' on the fourth floor feature a collection of the several rocks and minerals.
Two galleries display exhibits on "Evolution & Health" and archaeological research work in the U-M Museum of Archaeological Anthropology. The first floor Rotunda Lobby currently{{when|date=February 2025}} displays "The Invisible World of Mites".{{fact|date=February 2025}}
==Gallery== <gallery> File:Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor - IMG 9066.JPG|Lobby rotunda in the Alexander Ruthven Museums Building File:Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor - IMG 9036.JPG|The Michigan Wildlife Gallery in the Alexander Ruthven Museums Building File:Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor - IMG 9028.JPG|The Michigan Wildlife Gallery in the Alexander Ruthven Museums Building File:Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor - IMG 9052.JPG|The Michigan Wildlife Gallery in the Alexander Ruthven Museums Building File:Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor - IMG 9062.JPG|Previous Michigan Wildlife Gallery: Opossums File:Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor - IMG 9070.JPG|Previous Hall of Evolution: Permian Period File:Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor - IMG 9069.JPG|Previous Hall of Evolution: Triassic Period File:Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor - IMG 9068.JPG|Previous Hall of Evolution: Cretaceous Period File:Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor - IMG 9080.JPG|Previous Hall of Evolution: Oligocene Epoch File:Archaeopteryx lithographica Exhibit Museum of Natural History.JPG|''Replica of an Archaeopteryx'' fossil </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|University of Michigan Museum of Natural History}} * {{Official website}}
{{University of Michigan}} {{Authority control}}
Category:1956 establishments in Michigan Category:Museums established in 1956 Category:Anthropology museums in the United States Category:Dinosaur museums in the United States Category:Geology museums in the United States Category:Historic district contributing properties in Michigan Category:Museums in Ann Arbor, Michigan Category:Museums on the National Register of Historic Places Category:Natural history museums in Michigan Category:National Register of Historic Places in Washtenaw County, Michigan Category:University museums in Michigan Category:University of Michigan Category:University of Michigan buildings and structures Category:Science museums in Michigan Category:Planetaria in the United States