Fellows Behind the Scenes Tours




	Please contact Stacey Atcheley, Major Gifts Officer, at (213) 763-3316 to schedule your tour!

A behind-the-scenes tour gives Fellows the unparalleled opportunity to hear directly from the Natural History Museum's renowned scientists and curators as they walk you through collections not on view to the public and update you on their latest research and fieldwork conducted around the globe.
	Anthropology Take a guided of our Latin America Hall with Dr. Karen Wise, then see a recent anonymous donation of 22 Latin American masks. Or perhaps you’d rather visit the Native American Hall, the California History Hall, or visit the Anthropology storeroom to see a range of collections in Archeology and Ethnology. Our Anthropology curators conduct research around the world, accumulating examples of material culture and theoretical knowledge.
	Crustacea With 2 to 3 million specimens, curator Jody Martin will showcase highlights from one of the largest and most impressive Crustacea collections in the world. Learn about Jody’s Guana Island study in which he describes new species, records images of live animals, preserves animals for both morphological and molecular study, provides a web-based identification and resource guide, and aids education and conservation efforts in the British Virgin Islands. Guests will also enjoy the video piece that aired on National Geographic Today, created by the museum’s Marketing Department.
	Echinoderms The phylum Echinodermata is one of the four most abundant and ecologically important groups of marine invertebrates; it includes sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, basket stars and featherstars. Numerous species are of commercial value and are used to monitor seawater pollution. Learn directly from curator Gordon Hendler about how his fieldwork and research on brittlestars have impacted our knowledge of light and optical design, then see some of the specimens for yourself.
	Entomology Go behind-the-scenes in the fascinating world of Entomology and explore the largest collection of insects in southern California—over 5.5 million specimens! Associate Curator Dr. Brian Brown will share selections from the museum’s world-class holdings of insects and introduce you to his area of specialization: ant-decapitating and bee-killing phorid flies. You’ll also learn about the important research that Museum scientists conduct on biodiversity, systematics, fossil insects, and the evolution of major insect groups.
	History The History department’s Seaver Center for Western History Research—with collections of maps, manuscript materials, books and more than 300,000 photographs—documents the history of the trans-Mississippi West, with special emphasis on Southern California and Los Angeles. Curator Jonathan Spaulding can show you your neighborhood circa 1933 with archival fire insurance maps, or perhaps you’d like to see Amelia Earhart’s diary?
	Ichthyology Curator Christine Thacker will happily showcase fish of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Our collection is one of ten internationally recognized ichthyological collections in the United States, containing an estimated five million specimens. Our collection emphasis is the Pacific Rim, with particular strengths in fishes from the Galapagos Islands, Hawaiian Islands, Philippine Islands, the Antarctic, and the freshwaters of North, Central and South America. Christine will also highlight her work with the molecular systematics lab and efforts to digitally catalogue our collection.
	Insect Zoo Guests can view live exotic and local arthropods, including tarantulas, praying mantises, stick insects, scorpions, and fearsome giant water bugs. Interactive displays highlight insect communication, survival strategies, and the importance of insects in the environment. Go behind-the-scenes with our resident “Bug Guy,” Brent Karner, who will introduce you to Maria the Mexican Tarantula, or watch our Orchid Mantid feed on fruit flies. Brent’s tour will make an insect lover out of anyone!
	Malacology If you enjoy exploring marine life, you’ll love touring our nationally ranked Malacology collection. With specimens of marine and freshwater snails and clams, octopods, squid, nautilus, chitons, tusk shells, worm-like mollusks and primitive limpet-like snails Associate curator Angel Valdes will give you the crash course in Malacology, displaying some of the most colorful and interesting specimens from the largest collection of eastern Pacific mollusks in the world.
	Mammalogy The Natural History Museum has been actively studying stranded cetaceans since 1960 with the objectives of promoting marine mammal conservation, describing the natural history and evolution of cetaceans and educating the public about cetaceans.
	Mineralogy Tour the best U.S. gem and mineral collection west of Washington D.C. with curator Tony Kampf. Tony will guide you through his personal favorites and specimens unique to our museum, then take guests back to his office to show off recent acquisitions and important pieces not on public view. He can explain to you how a mineral is mapped and prepared, as well as share some fascinating techniques in lighting specimens to highlight their brilliance in colowww.r and clarity.
	Ornithology Behind-the-scenes in Ornithology, collection manager Kimball Garrett will show you drawer after drawer of bird skins and skeletons to demonstrate diversity within a single species. Global in scope, our collection houses 111,150 cataloged avian specimens. Kimball also gives great bird watching tips!
	Polychaetes The museum’s collection of polychaetes (segmented marine worms) is the largest in the world with an astonishing array of species available for behind-the-scenes viewing. Associate curator Kirk Fitzhugh makes worms fascinating and explains how analysis of several species helps monitor ocean pollution off the California coast.
	Rancho La Brea Meet Dr. John Harris, our Chief Curator of the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, whose research with Maeve Leakey in Kenya is world renowned. Dr. Harris will guide you through the Rancho La Brea collection, housed at the Page Museum. The Rancho La Brea collection is the largest single repository of Late Pleistocene vertebrate fossils in the world. Dr. Harris will show you specimens collected on site from several active pits, including famous pit 91, where annual excavation occurs.
	Taxidermy Have you ever wondered how the dioramas are put together and how the animals look so life-like? Tim Bovard, our Taxidermist of 17 years, will take you through the process of preparing animals and their habitats for exhibit. You won’t forget a peek at the animals in the freezer and the bone room—this is behind-the-scenes at its best!
	Teens and Above Tour See the museum’s odd and interesting places with a trip to view two of the following areas: the Taxidermy freezer, Entomology: the bug zone, Herpetology: the world of reptiles, or Mammalogy.
	Dinosaur Institute Tour one of the largest collections of dinosaurs in North America on a visit to the Dinosaur Institute. Dr. Luis M. Chiappe, the Institute's Director, or one of his staff of paleontologists will take you step-by-step through the collection and preparation of dinosaurs showing you fossils of these animals not on view to the public. Perhaps you will even see bones of Thomas the T.rex recently discovered and brought back from expeditions in Montana.