Denver Museum of Nature and Science facts for kids

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Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Established	December 6, 1900 (124 years ago)
Location	Denver, Colorado
Type	Natural History
Visitors	1,151,000 (2022)

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a super cool place in Denver, Colorado. It's a museum where you can explore the natural world and learn all about science. Imagine a huge building, about 716,000-square-foot (66,519 m²), filled with over a million amazing things! You can discover the natural history of Colorado, our Earth, and even the whole universe.

The museum is a special kind of organization called a nonprofit. This means it's not trying to make money, but rather to help people learn. Lots of people work and volunteer here to make sure visitors have a great time. In 2022, over a million people visited, making it one of the most popular museums in the United States! The museum even has its own online magazine called Catalyst.

Learning and Fun Programs

The museum offers many ways to learn, covering six main topics:

Anthropology: The study of humans and their cultures.
Geology: Learning about Earth's rocks and how it was formed.
Health Science: Discovering how our bodies work.
Paleontology: Exploring ancient life, like dinosaurs!
Space Science: Journeying through the universe.
Zoology: Understanding animals and their habitats.

Each year, more than 300,000 students and teachers visit the museum for school trips. The museum also has special programs that bring science to families and communities. They even help teachers learn new ways to teach science!

Museum's Story

Edwin Carter Log Cabin Naturalist Museum (c. 1875), Breckenridge, Colorado

The museum's story began in 1868 with a man named Edwin Carter. He lived in a small cabin in Breckenridge, Colorado. His passion was studying the birds and mammals of the Rocky Mountains. He collected one of the best collections of Colorado animals ever seen!

In 1892, some important people in Denver wanted to move Carter's collection to the city so everyone could see it. Carter agreed to sell his collection for $10,000. They also added collections of butterflies, moths, and sparkling gold.

These three collections became the start of the Colorado Museum of Natural History, which officially opened on December 6, 1900. After years of hard work, the museum finally opened its doors to the public on July 1, 1908. The first president of the museum, John F. Campion, said, "A museum of natural history is never finished." This means museums are always growing and adding new things!

In 1927, a team from the museum made an amazing discovery in New Mexico. They found ancient stone spear points, called Folsom points, stuck in the bones of an extinct type of bison. This proved that humans lived in North America over 10,000 years ago, much earlier than people thought!

The city of Denver started giving more money to the museum, and in 1948, its name changed to the Denver Museum of Natural History. In 2000, it changed again to the current Denver Museum of Nature & Science. This new name shows that the museum teaches about both nature and science.

Cool Exhibits to Explore

Skeleton of Edmontosaurus

Crystalline gold from Farncomb Hill, near Breckenridge, Colorado.

The museum has many exciting permanent exhibits:

Expedition Health

This exhibit teaches you all about the amazing human body, including how we taste things! It opened in 2009.

Space Odyssey

Ready for a trip to space? Space Odyssey explores the universe and our place in it. A cool part of this exhibit is a life-size copy of a Mars Exploration Rover, just like the ones that explored Mars!

Prehistoric Journey

Step back in time in Prehistoric Journey! This exhibit shows how life on Earth has changed over millions of years. You'll see skeletons and skulls of ancient animals, including dinosaurs like Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Diplodocus. There's also a diorama of a sea lily reef from 435 million years ago!

Wildlife Halls

The Wildlife Halls are famous for their incredible animal dioramas. These are like 3D pictures that show animals in their natural homes. They are one of the biggest collections of their kind in North America.

Birds of the Americas: See birds from Mexico, Guyana, and different parts of Colorado.
Explore Colorado: Discover animals from Colorado's plains to its highest peaks, like pronghorn antelope and prairie dogs.
Northern and Rare Birds: Learn about birds from North America, including some rare and extinct species like the Passenger pigeon.
South America: Take a journey to South America and see animals like capybaras and scarlet macaws.
Botswana, Africa: Go on a safari to Botswana and spot lions, zebras, and cheetahs.
Bears and Sea Mammals: Learn about different types of bears, from grizzlies to polar bears, and sea mammals like walruses and sea lions.
Edge of the Wild: This exhibit shows animals that live on the edge of wild areas, like elk and mountain lions.
North American Wildlife: Explore wild places across North America, from lynx in Alaska to mink in Colorado.
Australia and South Pacific Islands: Meet unique animals from Australia like koalas and red kangaroos, and birds from the Pacific Islands.

One diorama, called Western Brazil, was removed because it showed animals that don't naturally live together. But you can still find clues about it in the museum!

Insects & Butterflies

This exhibit on the first floor is all about tiny creatures! You can learn how insects are classified, how they defend themselves, and see many butterflies and moths found in Colorado, including the state insect, the Colorado hairstreak.

Egyptian Mummies

In the Egyptian Mummies exhibit, you'll see two real mummies and other ancient items from Egypt. There's even a small model of an ancient temple. Scientists have used special scans to learn more about these mummies!

Coors Gems & Minerals

Get ready to sparkle! This hall is filled with colorful crystals and minerals from all over the world. You can even see a re-created mine, just like the one where the "Alma King" was found. The "Alma King" is the largest rhodochrosite crystal ever found, and it's on display here!

Konovalenko Gem Carvings

On the third floor, you can see amazing sculptures made from gems by a Ukrainian artist named Vasily Konovalenko. This is the only public collection of his work outside of Moscow!

Ancient Denver

This exhibit features a series of paintings that show what the Denver area looked like from 300 million years ago all the way to today.

Around the museum, you can also find huge skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus rex, two Thalassomedon (ancient sea reptiles), and a fin whale. There's also a copy of the Chief Kyan totem pole.

Research and Collections

West facade

The museum isn't just for visitors; it's also a place for serious science! It has huge collections that scientists study:

Anthropology Collection: Over 50,000 items, including tools and art from ancient cultures around the world.
Earth Sciences Collection: Rocks, fossils of ancient animals and plants, and even meteorites from space!
Health Sciences Collection: Special human anatomy specimens used for study.
Space Sciences Lab: Scientific tools and a huge collection of digital images and videos of space.
Zoology Collection: Over 900,000 animal specimens, including spiders, insects, shells, birds, and mammals. Some are even from species that are now extinct!
Bailey Library and Archives: A library with thousands of books and scientific magazines about all the museum's topics.

Special Traveling Exhibits

The museum often brings in cool temporary exhibits from other museums. These exhibits usually stay for about six months. Some past exhibits have included:

Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed: This exhibit explored the art, culture, and history of the ancient Maya people.
Whales: Giants of the Deep: You could see huge whale skeletons and learn about these amazing ocean creatures.
Traveling the Silk Road: This exhibit showed artifacts from the ancient trade route that connected China to Europe.

Gates Planetarium

The Gates Planetarium is a special theater with 125 comfy seats that lean back. It has an amazing sound system and a huge, tilted dome screen, 56 ft (17 m) across. It's the perfect place to watch shows about stars, planets, and galaxies!

Infinity Theater

The Infinity Theater is a large theater that seats 440 people. It was originally built in 1940 and used for talks and films. In 1983, it became an IMAX theater, showing huge movies every day. It was updated in 2022 and reopened in 2023 with its new name, "Infinity Theater." It's now a super modern theater for all kinds of visual fun!

Morgridge Family Exploration Center and Avenir Collections Facility

In 2014, the museum added a big new section. This area includes the Morgridge Family Exploration Center and the Avenir Collections Center.

The Morgridge Family Exploration Center has three levels above ground. It's designed to help visitors learn about science and nature in fun, hands-on ways. There are special studios for exploring, a new gallery for temporary exhibits, and a "Discovery Zone" for younger kids.

The Avenir Collections Center is a special underground area that keeps nearly 1.5 million artifacts and specimens safe. It's climate-controlled to protect everything. Here, you can find things like bison from the 1870s, passenger pigeons (which are now extinct), and even the last grizzly bear killed in Colorado in 1979. All the information about these items is put into online databases for scientists to use.

Museum Secrets

Did you know the museum has hidden secrets? One of the artists who painted the dioramas, Kent Pendleton, hid eight tiny elves in his artwork throughout the museum! The museum's website even has scavenger hunts you can download to help you find these hidden elves and other "Museum Treasures." It's like a fun game while you explore!

Gallery

Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton located at the museum entrance
A Stegosaurus stenops and an Allosaurus fragilis from the Prehistoric Journey exhibit
A Diplodocus longus
A Dimetrodon limbatus and an Eryops megacephalus
Coffin lid of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu, a scribe at the Temple of Amun in Thebes
An assortment of Ushabti figurines
Ancient Mammal at Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Wapiti Elk from a diorama
Mountain Lion diorama
Bighorn sheep diorama
The Museum's famous 1942 Polar bear diorama, featuring a ringed seal
Diorama featuring Grizzly bears at Chimney Rock; Grizzlies have not been extant in Colorado since 1979
Plains Zebras and a Steenbok in a diorama from the 'Botswana' exhibit
Passenger Pigeons from Johnson County, Iowa in this 1890s scene in a diorama featuring the now extinct bird
A Bearded seal, a Ringed seal, and two Spotted seals from a portion of a diorama from the Bering Strait near the Diomede Islands
Amulets at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
A diorama featuring two southern cassowaries
Comparison of skulls from a normal Grizzly bear and its Alaska subspecies
Display of assorted Darwin's finches
The "Alma King", the world's largest rhodochrosite crystal
Diorama from the 'North American Indian Cultures' exhibit, depicting a group of Cheyenne Indians in the 1860s near modern-day Denver
Tiny the Torosaurus at Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Dinosaur sculpture next to the Museum's parking structure