The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is home to a number of museums. The majority of them on Central Campus, which include the Exhibit Museum of Natural History (including the Museum of Paleontology, UMMP), Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). North Campus is home to the Warren Robbins Gallery and Slusser Gallery at the School of Art & Design and the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments at the School of Music.
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The Exhibit Museum of Natural History began in the mid-19th century and expanded greatly with the donation of 60,000 specimens by Joseph Beal Steere, an UM alumnus, in the 1870s. Today, the collections are primarily housed and displayed in the Ruthven Museums Building which was completed in 1928.[1] The Ruthven Building includes a planetarium and exhibits on geology, paleontology in Michigan, Michigan wildlife, Native American culture and anthropology.[2] The building also houses three research museums: the Museum of Anthropology, Museum of Paleontology, and the Museum of Zoology, whose collection includes over 15 million specimens representing all orders of birds, amphibians and reptiles, mites, and insects, and over 80% of orders of fish and mollusks. The Exhibit Museum also holds the largest display of dinosaur specimens in Michigan, as well as specimens of the state fossil, the mastodon (the only such display in the world containing adult male and female specimens: the Buesching and Owosso mastodons).[3]
Another museum located on Central Campus is the Kelsey Museum of Archeology, which has a collection of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Middle Eastern artifacts.[4] Between 1972 and 1974, the museum was involved in the excavation of the archaeological site of Dibsi Faraj in northern Syria.[5] The Kelsey Museum re-opened November 1, 2009 after a renovation and expansion.[6]
The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) has approximately 18,000 works of art,[7] including European, American, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African, as well as changing exhibits. The Museum of Art re-opened in 2009 after a three year renovation and expansion.[8]
Also on Central Campus and housed in the School of Dentistry building is the Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry. The collection contains over 10,000 objects pertaining to the history of the dental profession.[9]
The Detroit Observatory is adjacent to the University Hospital complex. Containing two telescopes, it was the first observatory in Michigan and the second in Midwest, and is the second oldest building remaining on campus.[10] The Nichols Arboretum is also adjacent to the University Hospital complex.
The Warren Robbins Gallery and Slusser Gallery are art exhibit galleries housed in the School of Art & Design building on North Campus. The Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments, located in the Earl V. Moore Building of the School of Music, houses over 2,500 pieces of historical and contemporary musical instruments from all over the world.[11]
The Matthaei Botanical Gardens, located on the eastern outskirts of Ann Arbor, is another major collection of the university. The University of Michigan Herbarium, a research and teaching collection, is located south of the main campus.[12]