When it comes to museums, there’s little that does more than dinosaur skeletons to get your juices running, and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC probably has some of the nicest collection of them lot. With over 7 million visitors a year, it’s among the most popular museums in the world.
The museum website reads :
The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is part of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s preeminent museum and research complex. The Museum is dedicated to inspiring curiosity, discovery, and learning about the natural world through its unparalleled research, collections, exhibitions, and education outreach programs. Opened in 1910, the green-domed museum on the National Mall was among the first Smithsonian building constructed exclusively to house the national collections and research facilities.
Whether looking at the history and cultures of Africa, describing our earliest Mammalian ancestor or primate diversity around the world, examining ancient life forms including the ever popular dinosaurs, or exploring the beauty of rare gemstones such as uniquely colored diamonds, the Museum’s temporary and permanent exhibitions serve to educate, enlighten and entertain millions of visitors each year. The main building on the National Mall contains 1.5 million square feet of space overall and 325,000 square feet of exhibition and public space; altogether the Museum is the size of 18 football fields, and houses over 1000 employees. With a growing network of interactive websites, the Museum is transforming itself into a hub for national and international electronic education, accessible to anyone with access to the internet.
So in we go…
Running off to our favorite part of the natural history museums… the dinosaurs! 😛 :$
The whole thing about the existence of these creatures completely baffles me. Everytime I look at those things, or think about the existence of the dinosaurs, I get the "no way in hell this really happened" feeling, but that’s also what I feel when I think think about – say – George W Bush Jr.
Anyways, moving on, it also remains a bit of a mystery to me why we – people – like looking at stuffed animals so much. But when you compare that to the alternative of cramming them up in zoo cages for our entertainment, this isn’t perhaps as bad. Though they don’t move around as much as the zoo members, they atleast don’t run out and hide from the heat to make it impossible for us to point at them and cry "I see it".
There’s lots to see in that museum, it’s endless.