100 Years of Communication
A celebration of 100 years of research, conservation, and education at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
The Blossom Expedition (1923)
The Museum's first scientific expedition took a team of scientists on a cross-Atlantic adventure. The crew of the schooner Blossom traveled 20,000 miles and collected around 13,000 specimens from Africa, South America, and the islands of the South Atlantic.
The Wade Gem Collection - Fire Opal in MatrixCleveland Museum of Natural History
Wade Gem Collection (1924)
Jeptha H. Wade II gives the Museum the greater part of his collection of gems and semiprecious stones. With specimens including a jade necklace, Mississippi River pearls, opals, and colored diamonds, it is one of the top six gem collections in the United States.
BaltoCleveland Museum of Natural History
Balto (1927)
In late January, 1925, during a raging blizzard, the small town of Nome, Alaska, experienced an outbreak of diphtheria. Volunteers set up a relay of dogsled teams to transport the serum across the state. Balto led musher Gunnar Kaasen’s team of 13 dogs in the Serum Run. On February 2, Kaasen and his team delivered the serum to Nome’s hospital—saving the ailing children.
Balto (1927)
Cleveland businessman George Kimble discovered Balto’s team on display at a Los Angeles “dime” museum; all the dogs were ill and mistreated. After a nationwide appeal, the city raised over $2,000 to purchase all seven dogs. Receiving a hero’s welcome parade, the dogs settled down to enjoy retirement at the Brookside Zoo. After Balto passed, his body was preserved and placed on display at the Museum.
Trailside Museum (1930)
In 1930, we partnered with Cleveland Metroparks to create outdoor-education programming. The resulting innovation—small cabins (or “trailside museums”) that hosted exhibits and events for park visitors—paved the way for today’s nature centers.
The Museum has some of the world’s best-preserved Dunkleosteus terrelli fossils, including the giant armored skull on display in Kirtland Hall of Prehistoric Life, nicknamed “Dunk." Dunkleosteus terrelli is named for former Museum Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Dr. David Dunkle and Jay Terrell, who discovered the first fossils of the “terrible fish” in 1867. Ohio lawmakers designated Dunk the official state fossil fish in 2021.
Haplocanthosaurus delfsi (1954)
The Museum's Late Jurassic sauropod is the only known adult specimen of this dinosaur complete enough to display in its entirety. This dinosaur, the holotype of its species, was discovered by a Museum team in 1954 at a site near Canon City, Colorado. Nearly half the bones in this 70-foot-long, 14-foot-high mounted skeleton are real fossil material.
Australopithecus afarensis, "Lucy"Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Lucy (1974)
One of the most significant fossil finds in the study of human evolution, Lucy was discovered in Hadar in the Afar region of Ethiopia by former Museum curator Dr. Donald Johanson. At the time, Lucy was the oldest and most complete early human ancestor ever found.
Bald Eagle Breeding Program (1984)
Curator of Live Animals Harvey Webster and Wildlife Specialist Carl Lutzmann spurred nationwide action by spearheading a breeding program at the Museum—the first institution to successfully breed bald eagles in captivity via artificial insemination.
Hypercompe scriboniaCleveland Museum of Natural History
Long Term Moth Survey (1985)
Dr. Sonja Teraguchi conducted a 13 year survey of moth diversity and abundance in Northeast Ohio. With the help of students and volunteers, she trapped and documented almost 45,000 moths per year; her efforts added more than 56,000 specimens to the entomology collection.
Paleo Crossing Clues to Ohio's Earliest ResidentsCleveland Museum of Natural History
Paleo Crossing (1990-1993)
Located in Medina County, this archeological site is one of the earliest known sites of human colonization of the Lake Erie watershed. Excavation by the Museum’s Archaeology Department in the early 1990s uncovered artifacts, post molds, and pits from approximately 13,000 years ago.
HealthSpaceCleveland Museum of Natural History
HealthSpace (2007)
In 2007, the Museum merged with HealthSpace Cleveland, putting the spotlight on a new area of research and educational interest. Our mission was broadened to include this new focus, and in 2014 the Department of Human Health & Evolutionary Medicine was founded with Dr. Nicole Burt as curator.
In February, 2016, a remarkably complete cranium of a 3.8-million-year-old Australopithecus anamensis specimen was found by Dr. Haile-Selassie and his team at the Woranso-Mille study area in the Afar region of Ethiopia. The specimen was named “MRD,” short for its collection I.D. MRD provided our first glimpse of the face of Lucy’s ancestor and reshaped our understanding of human origins, indicating that A. anamensis and A. afarensis coexisted for about 100,000 years.
New Planetarium Tool Teaches Beyond the StarsCleveland Museum of Natural History
Biodiversity in the Dome software (2021)
In 2021, two new plug-in tools were developed in collaboration with Evans & Sutherland and released worldwide in Digistar software. The tools convert publicly available specimen records to a format that can be projected onto the planetarium dome and bring research and collections to a new stage.
Future Exterior (Night) by Gallagher & AssociatesCleveland Museum of Natural History
Natural History Reimagined (2024)
The Museum is undergoing a major transformation - an endeavor aimed at remaking the Museum as a bold and innovative space for the next century. At the forefront of the redesign is the importance of building scientific literacy in the community.
"Science advances every day. Our transformed Cleveland Museum of Natural History will not only demonstrate what a 21st-century natural history museum should be, but also continue to evolve alongside science." -Sally Sears, Board Chair and Campaign Co-Chair
"Biodiversity in the Dome" is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1942193. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
