BACKGROUND

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

The mission of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is to inspire wonder, discovery and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds. The Museum holds in its trust a vast and diverse collection of more than 35 million specimens and artifacts covering 4.5 billion years of Earth and human history. Free admission is offered to Los Angeles Unified school groups and a host of community outreach programs, monthly lectures and classes are offered to adults and children. Children's educational programs such as "Adventures in Nature" are offered each winter and summer, and the Museum houses an interactive Discovery Center and Insect Zoo where children can learn first-hand about natural science and history.

Permanent Exhibits

• Dinosaurs, the perennial natural history museum favorite, are well represented here. Dinosaur exhibits include the Museum's hallmark, the "Dueling Dinosaurs," complete skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops posed in battle, a cast of the complete skeleton of a Mamenchisaurus, the largest-necked dinosaur ever discovered, one of the few and finest Tyrannosaurus rex skulls on view anywhere, and dramatic models of an Allosaurus and Carnotaurus by sculptor/paleontologist Stephen Czerkas.
  
  
• Three world-famous habitat halls that showcase African and North American mammals in their natural environments.
  
  
• The Museum is home to Megamouth, the world's rarest shark -- a 14.5 foot long male that is the only one of its kind on public view in North America. Only 11 of these elusive sharks have been found since the first one was discovered in 1976.
  
  
• The Times Mirror Hall of Native American Cultures showcases more than 800 pieces from the Museum's permanent collections in 16 different interpretive areas. Highlights include Navajo textiles from the William Randolph Hearst Collection, California and Great Basin baskets, Southwest pottery and jewelry, Plains beadwork, and replicas of a two-story Pueblo cliff dwelling and a collector's California Craftman house.
  
  
• More than 2,000 gem and mineral specimens are on view in the Gem and Mineral Hall. The hall features one of the largest gold exhibits in the world, and includes over 300 pounds of natural gold along with gold mining artifacts and other memorabilia. The walk-through Hixon Gem Vault houses such spectacular treasures as exquisite star rubies, emeralds and sapphires.
  
  
• In the Ralph M. Parsons Discovery Center, children of all ages take fossil rubbings from a realistic-looking rock wall; look at water drops under a microscope; check out "discovery boxes" full of educational activities; observe live animals such as snakes, fish and lizards; or get a closer look at a stuffed lion tiger and bear.
  
  
• Tarantulas, scorpions, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, giant spiny stick insects, dung beetles, giant water bugs, and centipedes are among the residents of the Museum's Ralph M. Parsons Insect Zoo. A fully-stocked refrigerator of insect delicacies and interactive displays are featured.
  
  
• Animated birds, three walk-through habitats and 27 separate learning stations are featured in the popular Schreiber Hall of Birds. More than 500 birds from around the world are on display.
  
  
• A unique exhibit, "Chaparral: A Story of Life from Fire," demonstrates fire's importance in the life cycle of chaparral through a multi-media presentation that surrounds the visitor with the sights, sounds and even the smells of a chaparral ecosystem.
  
  
• The Marine Hall features intricate dioramas of sea life in California waters, from the intertidal to the deep sea. Identifications of many of the animals and plants seen by beachcombers and scuba divers are provided.

Curators

The Museum's curators are widely-recognized authorities in their field. They serve as faculty and research associates at universities, museums and other institutions. Like university professors, curators are engaged in field and on-site research, teaching and public speaking. Their responsibilities also include building and preserving the Museum's collections.

Research and Collections

• Containing examples of nearly half of the 25,000 known fish species, the Museum's ichthyology collection is one of the largest in the nation. It is also recognized as an International Resource Center for fishes.
  
  
• The Museum's herpetology collection of reptiles and amphibians is particularly rich in specimens from North and South America, eastern and southern Africa and Australia.
  
  
• The Museum boasts the world's largest collection of southwestern moths and butterflies and one of North America's largest collections of ants.
  
  
• Begun with 250 specimens in 1913, the Museum's ornithological collection now numbers more than 104,000 birds, including more California condors than any other institution in the world. All of the condors were presented to the Museum by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
  
  
• The Museum houses the second largest collection of marine mammals in the world. Curators in marine mammalogy are actively involved in the marine mammal stranding project administered by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
  
  
• Marine invertebrates account for much of the oceans' biodiversity and are crucial to the ecology of the seas. The Museum has the most extensive collection of West Coast invertebrates in the world, and its holdings incorporate such specimens as deep-sea and coral reef crabs, sea stars, snails, and worms from exotic locales including the Antarctic, Galapagos Islands and the Caribbean.
  
  
• The Museum has the largest catalogued vertebrate fossil collection and the sixth largest invertebrate fossil collection in North America.
  
  
• Art plays an important part in the Museum's history collections, which feature more than 500 works by American artists. They include paintings by Edwin Deakin, Theodore Wores, Charles R. Knight, Lemuel Wiles and drawings and prints by Currier and Ives, John J. Audubon and Maynard Dixon.
  
  
• The Seaver Center for Western History Research is responsible for a large collection of photographs, manuscripts, maps, posters and ephemera, and is particularly rich in photographs documenting the growth of Southern California. Housed within the Museum, it is an important source for the general public, as well as history students and scholars.
  
  
• Originally developed from loans and donations of items relating to the Hispanic period of the American Southwest, the History Collections remain rich in materials from this era. The collections also include textiles, scientific instruments, arms and armor, dolls, toys, games and many more artifacts of American History.

Educational Programs

• Through its School Tour Program, the Museum provides tours on over 22 different subjects to more than 270,000 students annually.
  
  
• The Museum on the Move brings the Museum's educational resources to more than 25,000 people each year in elementary school classrooms, libraries, special education programs, nursing homes and other facilities for the elderly.
  
  
• The Museum's Classroom Collections Service lends scientific specimens, historical models and artifacts, slides and graphics to more than 150,000 school children in five Southern California counties.
  
  
• The Earthmobile, a mobile museum containing an archaeological excavation and laboratory, provides opportunities for scientific enrichment and hands-on discovery to approximately 14,000 third through sixth graders in the Los Angeles School District each year. The Seamobile takes middle school students from the Los Angeles Unified School District on a simulated dive in a submersible beneath the sea off the California coast. Approximately 12,000 students participate at their school site each year and learn from this extraordinary mobile museum.
  
  
• More than 750,000 people each year enjoy programs provided by the Museum's Education Division, at the Museum site, as well as at schools, libraries, hospitals, nursing homes and science fairs.

The Natural History Museum is located at 900 Exposition Blvd. The Museum is open seven days a week, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $9 for adults, $2 for children 5 - 12 and $6.50 for students/seniors. Children under 5 are free. Groups of 10 or more can receive discounted rates by calling (213) 763-3218. For 24-hour Museum information please call (213) 763-DINO or visit the Museum's web site at www.nhm.org.

The Natural History Museum Family includes the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits and the William S. Hart Museum.