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Peabody Museum of Natural History

(2024)
New Haven, Connecticut, US
Established	1866
Location	New Haven,Connecticut, US
Coordinates	41°19′03″N72°55′12″W / 41.317538°N 72.919863°W /41.317538; -72.919863
Type	Natural History
Director	David Skelly
Owner	Yale University
Public transit access	228, 229
Website	peabody.yale.edu

ThePeabody Museum of Natural History atYale University (also known as theYale Peabody Museum of Natural History^[1] or theYale Peabody Museum^[1]) is one of the oldest, largest, and most prolific universitynatural history museums in the world. It was founded by thephilanthropistGeorge Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephewOthniel Charles Marsh, an earlypaleontologist. The museum is best known for the Great Hall of Dinosaurs, which includes a mounted juvenileBrontosaurus and the 110-foot-long (34 m) muralThe Age of Reptiles. The museum also has permanent exhibits dedicated tohuman andmammal evolution;wildlifedioramas;Egyptianartifacts; localbirds andminerals; andNative Americans ofConnecticut.

In 2020, the Peabody Museum closed for its "first comprehensive renovation in 90 years."^[2] It reopened, with more than twice the exhibition space, on March 26, 2024.^[3][4]

The Peabody Museum is located at 170Whitney Avenue inNew Haven, Connecticut and is staffed by nearly a hundred staff members. The original building was demolished in 1917; it moved to its current location in 1925, and has since expanded to occupy the Peabody Museum, the attached Kline Geology Laboratory, the Class of 1954 Environmental Sciences Center, parts of three additional buildings, and a field station atLong Island Sound. The museum also ownsHorse Island in theThimble Islands, which is not open to the public; it is used for experiments. The Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center, completed in 2001 and connected to the museum and the adjacent Kline Geology Laboratory, hosts approximately one-half of the museum's 13 million specimens.^{[citation needed]}

On August 28, 2018,Yale University announced a contribution of $160 million byEdward P. Bass towards the cost of the renovation of the museum.^[5][6] The landmark commitment ranks among the most generous gifts to Yale and is the largest known gift ever made to a natural history museum in the United States,^{[citation needed]} helping to fund the renewal and expansion of the museum.^[7]

The galleries were planned to be open through June 30, 2020 (the Great Hall of Dinosaurs was open through January 1, 2020), but had to close in March due toCOVID-19 and did not reopen until the conclusion of renovations in 2024.^[7][8] The renovation more than doubled the exhibition space, added 10 classrooms, and included a new education center for K-12 students.^[3]

In November 2021, Yale University announced that admission will be free "in perpetuity" once construction is complete.^[9]

The Peabody has several world-important collections. Perhaps the most notable are the vertebrate paleontology collections which are among the largest, most extensive, and most historically important fossil collections in the United States (seeOthniel Charles Marsh,R.S. Lull,George Gaylord Simpson,John Ostrom,Elisabeth Vrba, andJacques Gauthier), and theHiram Bingham Collection ofIncan artifacts fromMachu Picchu, named for the famous Yale archaeologist who rediscovered thePeruvian ruin. Also notable are the extensive ornithology collection, one of the largest and most taxonomically inclusive in the world,^{[citation needed]} and the associated William Robertson Coe Ornithology Library, one of the best in the United States. The collection of marine invertebrates is also extensive, having benefitted from the work of prolific invertebrate zoologists includingAddison Emery Verrill. The Yale Herbarium is part of the Peabody Museum.^[10]

Faculty curators for the collections are drawn from Yale's departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Geology and Geophysics, and Anthropology. Because the departments maintain a strong tradition of hiring faculty to perform collections-based research, especially after the renewed support for organismal biology at Yale under PresidentRichard Charles Levin and in particular former provostAlison Richard, nearly all of the collections are under active internal use and enjoy continuous and considerable growth.^{[citation needed]}

The museum has erected the first full-scale reproduction of aTorosaurus on Whitney Avenue next to the entrance. The 3 m (9 ft) tall, 7 m (21 ft) long, 3.33metric ton (7,350lb) statue was sculpted in clay and cast in bronze, and set on a 4 m (13 ft) tall granite base. The reproduction ofT. latus is scientifically faithful ofT. latus, and its skin is based on the fossilized skin impressions left by aChasmosaurus (a closely relatedceratopsid).^[11]

Permanent exhibits before renovations have included:

• The Great Hall of Dinosaurs (this exhibit will be in the same place with same mural after renovation) with the skeleton of aBrontosaurus.^[12][13]
  • The Age of Reptiles Mural is a 110-foot-long (34 m) depiction of dinosaurs in their natural habitats. It was painted byRudolph F. Zallinger, and is located in the Great Hall of Dinosaurs.
• Fossil Fragments: The Riddle of Human Origins is a new exhibit dedicated tohuman evolution.
• The Birds of Connecticut Hall has 722 specimens, representing more than 300 of the 382 documented species in the state of Connecticut.
• There are eleven dioramas in total: three on the ecology of Connecticut with plants and vertebrates,^[14] and eight depicting various regions around North America.^[15] They were designed byJames Perry Wilson, F. Lee Jaques, and Ralph C. Morrill.^{[citation needed][15][16]}
• The Hall of Mammalian Evolution includesThe Age of Mammals mural, also painted by Zallinger.^{[citation needed]}
• An extensive collection of minerals, primarily from Connecticut
• Native American artifacts from Connecticut
• The Hall of Ancient Egyptian Artifacts
• The museum has displayed one of the longest known preservedfulgurites, approximately 4 m (13 ft) in length.^[17]

As of 2024^[update], the director of the Peabody Museum is David Skelly, acurator ofvertebrate zoology and a professor ofecology in the Department ofEcology &Evolutionary Biology, and theSchool of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He was named director in 2014.^[18]

The Peabody Museum has curators representinganthropology, botany,entomology,invertebratezoology, invertebratepaleontology,vertebrate zoology (with individual curators forherpetology,ichthyology,mammalogy, andornithology),paleobotany, vertebrate paleontology;mineralogy andmeteoritics; and historicalscientific instruments.^{[citation needed]}

There are almost 100 full-time and part-time staff, including curators, assistant curators, curators emeriti, curatorial affiliates, andvolunteers. Curators and assistant curators are alsofaculty members in related departments.^[19][20]

Othniel Charles Marsh was an undergraduate and later the Professor of Paleontology at Yale University. His education was paid for by his wealthy uncleGeorge Peabody, who began to donate much of his accumulated wealth to various educational institutions at the end of his life. Marsh and his teams discovered dozens of new genera of dinosaurs and other fossil animals, includingTriceratops,Brontosaurus, andHesperornis. At the request of Marsh and to house some of his discoveries, Peabody founded Yale's Museum of Natural History in 1866 with a gift of $150,000.^{[citation needed]}

Yale's collection at the time was mostly minerals, collected by thegeologist andmineralogistBenjamin Silliman. Marsh was one of the museum's first three curators and when Peabody died in 1869, he used his inheritance to fund expeditions bringing back specimens which greatly increased the museum's collections. His primary interest wasdinosaurs. During the infamous period in paleontological history known as theBone Wars, he discovered 56 new species of dinosaur and literally shipped tons of fossils back from theAmerican Southwest. His finds also included fossils of vertebrates and invertebrates,trackways of prehistoric animals; and archaeological andethnological artifacts.

The museum officially opened to the public in 1876. In 1917, it was demolished and replaced by theHarkness Memorial Quadrangle dormitory.^{[citation needed]} WhenWorld War I began most of the collections were put in storage until December 1925, when the current building was dedicated.^{[citation needed]} The new building had a great, 2-story hall designed specifically to hold Marsh's dinosaurs.

Some other significant events include:

• In 1930, donation of theHarry Payne Bingham Oceanographic Collection, including the work of artistWilfrid Swancourt Bronson.^[21][22][23]
• In 1931, the mounting of Marsh'sBrontosaurus was finished, after 6 years of work.^{[citation needed]}
• In 1947,Rudolph F. Zallinger finished painting dinosaurs in their natural habitats in his 110-foot-long (34 m) muralThe Age of Reptiles, after3+1⁄2 years of work.
• In 1959, Bingham Laboratory was completed.^{[citation needed]}
• In 1963, Kline Geology Laboratory was completed.^{[citation needed]}
• In 1972, the Birds of Connecticut Hall opened.^{[citation needed]}
• 1985 - The Museum acquired the specimens ofPrinceton University following the shutdown of its paleontology program.^[24]
• In 2001, the interdisciplinary Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center was constructed on the site of the former Bingham Laboratory. It houses collections space for the museum and laboratory space for several curators.
• In 2005, the Peabody unveiled its 21-foot life-size bronze sculpture ofTorosaurus—one of O.C. Marsh's famed dinosaur discoveries. The 7,350-pound sculpture sits on a 13-foot, 70-ton base ofStony Creek granite.
• In 2018, the Peabody announced a $160 million transformative gift toward a redefining renovation that will greatly expand its research capabilities, education and collection centers, and its exhibition galleries.
• In 2020, the great hall closed at the beginning of the year, the rest of the museum closed in March, and many artifacts were transported to West Haven campus in December.^[7]

The Peabody Museum offers a certificate in natural illustration, specializing in comparative anatomy and plant morphology. The certificate includes 336 hours of coursework, along with personal study and the development of a portfolio.^[25]

• The museum was featured inThe Simpsons episode "Burns, Baby Burns". In the episode Mr. Burns has had a relationship with Lily Bancroft and produced an illegitimate son (voiced byRodney Dangerfield). He is shown in a flashback to 1939 for his 25th graduation class reunion. They make love in the museum, specifically in an exhibit which featuresInuit and penguins.^[26]

• "TheTorosaurus Project at the Yale Peabody Museum". Peabody Museum of Natural History. 2005. Archived fromthe original on August 6, 2019. RetrievedJuly 9, 2014.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPeabody Museum of Natural History.

• Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University (official website)
  • The Age of Reptiles muralArchived September 29, 2018, at theWayback Machine

41°18′57″N72°55′16″W / 41.3158°N 72.921°W /41.3158; -72.921

• Museums in New Haven, Connecticut
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