Created in 1998 as the public face of three research museums, the Harvard Museum of Natural History fills the University Museum Building in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Inside, the museum features 16 galleries and displays roughly 12,000 specimens drawn from the collections of three natural history research museums: the Harvard University Herbaria, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Harvard Mineralogical Museum. The Harvard Museum of Natural History was created in 1998 as the 'public face' of those research museums, and its exhibitions draw directly on Harvard University's natural history collections.
The building is physically connected to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at 26 Oxford Street; one admission grants visitors access to both museums. In 2012, Harvard formed a new consortium, the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, whose members include this museum, the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, the Peabody Museum, and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. Stand here and imagine research faculty drawing from deep collections, and know that the 16 galleries and 12,000 specimens are the public face of those efforts.
One admission carries you next door to the connected Peabody Museum at 26 Oxford Street.