Qualla: National Museum of Natural History

National Museum of Natural History: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Bjorgen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Walk through the brass-and-marble rotunda of the National Museum of Natural History and the first thing you see is an elephant. Twenty-four thousand pounds of taxidermied African bush elephant, standing on a circular plinth in the center of the rotunda, tusks raised, mounted in an aggressive defensive posture. The animal is named Henry. He was killed in Angola in 1955, donated to the Smithsonian, and has stood at the museum's center ever since. He weighs roughly as much as a small car. Behind him, the rotunda's marble dome rises 124 feet. Around the perimeter, four floors of galleries hold something on the order of 146 million specimens and cultural artifacts - the largest natural history collection in the world. Approximately 185 staff scientists make this also the largest assembly of natural-history researchers anywhere. And the Hope Diamond, fifteen feet from the entrance, sits in a corner case waiting for the next visitor to walk by.

Image: David Bjorgen | CC BY-SA 3.0

National Museum of Natural History: The McMillan Plan's First Building

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0. The U.S. National Museum was founded in 1846 as part of the original Smithsonian Institution. The collections grew quickly through the second half of the nineteenth century - donations from federal scientific expeditions, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of American Ethnolo...

Image: Another Believer | CC BY-SA 3.0

National Museum of Natural History: The Hope Diamond's Curse

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Chan from Hollywood, United States, CC BY 2.0. The Hope Diamond - 45.52 carats, deep blue, set in a platinum pendant with white diamonds - arrived at the Smithsonian on November 10, 1958, as a gift from New York jeweler Harry Winston, who shipped it to the museum in a plain brown package by registered first-class mail. Winsto...

Image: Eric Chan from Hollywood, United States | CC BY 2.0

National Museum of Natural History: Sixteen Thousand Specimens From a Bridge Builder

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fuzheado, CC BY-SA 4.0. The museum's mineral and gem collection holds over 15,000 individual gems, 350,000 minerals, 300,000 rock and ore samples, and approximately 45,000 meteorites - the most comprehensive meteorite collection in the world. Some of the most significant donations came from unexpected d...

Image: Fuzheado | CC BY-SA 4.0

National Museum of Natural History: Seven Million Fish in Jars

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Behind the public galleries, the museum holds collections most visitors never see: 30 million pinned insects in archival drawers, 4.5 million pressed plants in the herbarium, 7 million fish preserved in alcohol-filled jars, more than 580,000 amphibian and reptile specimens (up fr...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

National Museum of Natural History: Politics and Climate

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RadioFan, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2007, museum exhibits director Robert Sullivan publicly charged that director Cristián Samper and Smithsonian Undersecretary for Science David Evans had ordered last-minute changes to the exhibit Arctic: A Friend Acting Strangely, toning down language about human contributions...

Image: RadioFan | CC BY-SA 4.0