Cleveland Museum of Natural History

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located in University Circle, a 550-acre (220 ha) complex of educational, cultural, and medical institutions. Cyrus S. Eaton founded the museum in 1920 to conduct research, education, and collection development in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, botany, geology, palaeontology, wildlife biology, and zoology.  The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has its origins in the Ark, which was founded in 1836 on Cleveland's Public Square by William Case, the Academy of Natural Science, which was founded by William Case and Jared Potter Kirtland, and the Kirtland Society of Natural History, which was founded in 1869 and revived in 1922 by the trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. When Donald Johanson discovered "Lucy," the skeletal remains of the ancient hominid Australopithecus afarensis, he was the museum's curator. Yohannes Haile-Selassie is the current Curator and Head of the Physical Anthropology Department. The new Fannye Shafran Planetarium, built near the museum's entrance in 2002, contains displays on the planets of the Solar System as well as historical instruments of exploration such as compasses and astrolabes.

History

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History dates back to the 1830s in part.

 The Ark, a two-room frame house on the northeast side of Public Square, housed taxidermy ranging from birds to reptiles and mammals.  This was Leonard Case, Srcollection, .'s which he passed down to his sons Leonard Case, Jr. and William Case. A group of 26 men known as Arkites frequented the Ark. These men gathered information, conducted research, and shared their findings. At the time, Cleveland had no museums. The Ark was relocated to nearby Case Hall in 1876. The original structure was demolished to make way for a post office. The collection was kept there until 1916, when the facility was demolished.when it was converted into the Cleveland Public Library .

OPERATIONAL HOURS

Tuesday-Sunday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day are all holiday closures at the Museum. On Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, the Museum closes at 4 p.m.

Friday Night Lights is from 5-8pm.

Beginning Friday, October 21, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History will keep the lights on until 8 p.m. on Friday nights. Every Friday, there will be special programming.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History, as it is now known, was established in 1920. It was housed in a Lennox Building office.  By the end of the next year, the museum had relocated to a mansion on Euclid Avenue, which was part of Cleveland's millionaires' row.  On June 24, 1922, this location was first open to the public. After Jeptha Wade II died in 1926, the museum received his precious stone collection. In 1930, the Case collection was expanded by organising an ornithological safari to Kenya. The Haplocanthosaurus dinosaur, discovered by museum staff in 1954, is one of the most complete examples of this 70-foot-long sauropod ever discovered. , when it was converted into the Cleveland Public Library . when it was converted into the Cleveland Public Library .