Beneski Museum of Natural History facts for kids
Mammals of the Ice Age in the Main Hall
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| Location | Amherst, Massachusetts |
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The Beneski Museum of Natural History, Amherst College is a cool place to explore on the campus of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. It shows off amazing fossils and minerals. Many of these were found right nearby or in faraway places by students and professors over the years. The museum is inside the Beneski Earth Sciences Building, which opened in 2006. It's also part of a group called Museums10.
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Discovering the Past: Museum History
The Beneski Museum's collection started a very long time ago, almost when the college first began! A key person was Edward Hitchcock. He joined the college in 1825 and later became its third president. Hitchcock loved science and asked former students to send back interesting scientific items from all over the world.
Early Homes for Collections
During his time as president, Hitchcock helped raise money to build the Octagon. This was the first special home for Amherst's natural history collection. Later, in 1855, the college built the Appleton Cabinet. This building held the famous Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet (a collection of dinosaur footprints), along with other important collections.
Moving to a New Home
Over the years, the college's collections moved around campus. In the 1940s, they found a home in the old Pratt Gymnasium, which became the Pratt Museum of Natural History. Finally, in 2006, the entire collection moved to its current, modern home in the Beneski Earth Sciences Building.
Amazing Discoveries Inside
Today, the museum holds about 200,000 objects! This includes the college's historic Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet. It has more than 1,700 slabs of rock with dinosaur footprints, making it one of the biggest collections in the world. Edward Hitchcock himself collected many of these. You can also see the world-famous "Noah's Raven" tracks. These were found in South Hadley, Massachusetts, way back in 1802. They are the first dinosaur fossil ever found in North America! This was 40 years before scientists even knew what dinosaurs were. Researchers from all over the world visit the museum to study these incredible collections.
What You Can See: Museum Collections
The Beneski Museum of Natural History has many different types of collections and exhibits. These include fossils of animals with backbones (like dinosaurs) and without backbones (like insects). You'll also find minerals, rocks, and items from different human cultures.
Exploring the Floors
The museum has three floors filled with exhibits, showing over 1,700 different items. It's home to the world's largest collection of dinosaur tracks, called the Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet, which dates back to the 1850s. People have been collecting these amazing specimens since the 1830s, both from local areas and from around the globe. Famous collectors include Edward Hitchcock, Charles Shepard, and Frederic Brewster Loomis.
- First Floor: Here, you'll see huge Ice Age mammals, like a mastodon found in 1869 and a mammoth discovered in 1923. This floor also has an exhibit about how horses evolved in North America.
- Second Floor: This floor displays many different invertebrates (animals without backbones), trace fossils (like burrows or tracks), and minerals. You can also learn about the local geology. Many exhibits on these floors show how life has changed over time and how living things interact with their environment.
- Basement: Downstairs is where the amazing dinosaur track collection is kept. You can also see dinosaur skeletons, like the best-preserved Dryosaurus specimen in the world. There are even two legs from the giant long-necked dinosaur Dyslocosaurus. The museum also has a jaw from "Alamotyrannus", which was found in 1924.
The Building: Beneski Earth Sciences
The Beneski Earth Sciences Building opened in 2006. It houses both the geology department and the Beneski Museum of Natural History. The building was designed to fit in with the other strong-looking buildings nearby. It has won many awards for its design.
Learning and Discovery
The building's design helps students learn science by doing it. Many regular classrooms were replaced with special teaching labs. These labs combine different research activities and make it easy for students to access the museum's huge collections.
The building's south side faces the Holyoke Range, which is a great place to study rock formations. The landscaping around the building even includes 35 tons of rocks brought from the Adirondack Mountains! And get this: the bathroom countertops on each floor are made of different types of rocks – igneous rocks on one level, metamorphic rocks on another, and sedimentary rocks on a third. It's a museum everywhere you look!
See also
