Amherst College Museum of Natural History
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Amherst College Museum of Natural History is a museum of geology and natural history associated with and on the campus of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is located in a new building completed in 2006, and a member of Museums10. Hours are 11-4 Tuesday through Sunday with free admission.
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[edit] History
Today's museum has a distinguished history dating to 1855, when the college built Appleton Cabinet with a donation from Samuel Appleton to house the remarkable Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet, the Gilbert Museum of Indian Relics, and the Adams Zoological Museum. At that time the Hitchcock Cabinet contained the world's largest collection of fossil footprints and tracks, much of which still remains. (Appleton Cabinet was renamed Appleton Hall in 1925 when remodeled as classroom and office space.)
Today's museum is a successor to the Pratt Museum of Natural History, which name was adopted in the 1940s when the College's natural history collections moved from various campus buildings into the former Pratt Gymnasium (built 1884).
[edit] Collections
The Amherst College Museum of Natural History houses outstanding collections and exhibits that include vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, minerals and other geologic specimens, and anthropological material. The museum contains three floors of exhibits and over 1700 specimens on display.
Specimens have been collected since the 1830's from local areas and around the world. Some displays illustrate the evolution and ecology of major groups of animals, and others describe the geological processes which have formed the earth and local structures. Particularly noteworthy is the world-famous dinosaur track collection from the sedimentary rocks of the Connecticut Valley. This collection continues to be the largest fossil track collection in the world and one of the most studied.
Researchers can obtain special access to the Museum's collections.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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