Trip Taken: 2010
Museum of Natural History
There really is no good reason to go to Harvard’s Museum of Natural History unless you are a big anthropology nerd, into taxidermy, or somehow got caught up in the rain. The museum has been on my radar of potential things to do in Boston, but was never really high on the things to do. I thought that it would have been something to do if there was nothing else to do.
During my last few days in Boston, I didn’t really know where else to go. I visited the MFA, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and did a little shopping on Newbury Street. It was decided that we should visit MIT and Harvard. They both have subway stations that are adjacent to the campuses. Harvard and the museum came up in my thought process. And as fate would have it, it did start to rain.
Geology
Crystal Explosion
One of the very first things you do when you go up the two flights of stairs to the actual exhibits is choosing between going left or going right. I headed right and into the geology exhibit. There were stones and a plenty. Beryl, Quartz, Sulfites, sulfates, and on and on. There were so many rocks that there had to be twenty odd rows of rocks with each row displaying close to two hundred exhibits each. That’s my own estimate based on memory. Of course, it’s not even counting the larger displays.
I walked around taking photographs of rocks. I felt quite silly. Yes, some of these rocks are pretty cool and the geodes are always fun to look at. But unless, you are a serious rock fan it’s not worth more than a couple of minutes.
Taxidermy
Stuffed Bison
Now on to what I think is the way cooler part of the museum, the stuffed animals. It is a museum of natural history after all. There were plenty of cool displays and I think competes a little bit with American Museum of Natural History in New York. Of course, the collection in New York was displayed more presentably but the Harvard museum was no slouch either. The small aisles actually force you to see the stuffed animals and skeletons at a closer distance than you normally would. I did jump when I turned a corner and was face to face with a tiger.
I didn’t really talk much about the glass plant display or the anthropology exhibits. I think to appreciate the anthropology exhibit you need a little bit more explanation about each exhibit. A simple card telling us where it’s from won’t suffice. Is that knife used for rituals? cooking? sacrifice? Who knows and without the story I really don’t care.
Picture Gallery
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John is always trying to find his way back to the road. He has an affinity for Germany due to his three years studying German at Cal, and a year working as an intern in the Stuttgart area. He also likes chocolate cake and good cheese. 
If you are a Germanophile, I can’t believe you did not appreciate Harvard’s world famous collection of hand crafted ‘Glass Flowers’ created by Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, outside of Dresden, Germany from 1886-1936. 180,000 people come from all over the world to see this extraordinary collection, commissioned by Harvard in the 19th c. You might at least have enjoyed the glass model of Cacao! if you love chocolate. And there are 3,000 mineral specimens on display in the mineral gallery you glanced at, among the finest collections in the world.. And the anthropological exhibits are on display in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, a separate museum adjacent to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. (admission to both included in your ticket.) It sounds like you missed the dinosaurs, the 42 foot Kronosaurus, the mastodon, giant sloth, and the huge whale skeletons suspended from the ceiling of the Great Mammal Hall? Our family loves the Harvard Museum of Natural History, with over 12,000 cool specimens on display…check the website for hours when the museum is free to Massachusetts residents, or pick up a library pass at your local library to save money.
Sounds like you are a true fan of the museum Mary! If you believe that I didn’t give the HMNH a fair chance, you are probably correct. After several days of researching for my trip to the MFA and the Isabella Gardner Stewart museum, the HMNH was pretty much an after thought. Museum fatigue kicks in after so many days of exhibits. I thank you for enlightening me with some of this information. But to be fair the displays could have really used some more information and some context. We were fairly rushed in our visit as the museum closed before I even got to look at the ‘Glass Flowers’. I will have to give a trip to the HMNH another chance. Maybe on a sunny day and not a rainy one.