Mineral Hall, Harvard Museum of Natural History - Cambridge, MA - Rock and Mineral Displays on Waymarking.com

In Cambridge, on the campus of Harvard University, is a pair of museums, one of which is the Harvard Museum of Natural History. In one of the spacious rooms is Mineral Hall, which has minerals of all colors and from all parts of the world - and even our solar system.

Within this room are glassed cabinets with several shelves of minerals that lined the walls, and glass cases arranged in rows in the middle of the room. The display is arranged by mineral family, with a description about that mineral family. Beside each specimen is a card as well that identifies the mineral and the place it was obtained.

Key exhibits include two huge amethyst geodes and a display of meteorites. But there are so many beautiful specimens, it's hard to choose between them!

The meteorite display includes an interactive component that allows you to see videos and play with parameters to see how two objects collide withone another.

The web site stated that the Harvard Museum of Natural History was created in 1998 from the merging of three research museums: the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University Herbaria, and Minerological and Geological Museum. The mineral and geological museums existed in the 1800s and were located elsewhere on the campus. The current building, University Museum building, is a multi-story brick building. The room that the mineral museum is located was completed in 1891.

There are many other things to see, so budget more than a couple hours to go through the museum. See the web site for details on hours and admission. One thing that is in extremely shore supply - parking. There is only street parking available, and you may have to circle around a few times to find a spot. Meters allow a maximim of two hours at a time.


Address:

26 Oxford Street
Cambridge
MA 02138

Web Site:
(visit link)

Type of Display: Geological

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Date Logged Log   08/04/2014 Graham-Crunch visited it