San Diego Natural History Museum
In 1874, the San
Diego Society of Natural History was born, and today it occupies
a marvelous spot at Balboa Park in San Diego, California, the
third oldest science institution west of the Mississippi River
and the oldest scientific establishment in the state. The
structure would be constructed and opened in 1933, with an
addition finished in 2001 that doubled its spaces to about
150,000 square feet, that would add more research space,
administrative offices and educational rooms, as well as five
new exhibition halls. One significant addition would be the
state-of-the-art theater with 56 foot screen and Dolby Digital
3D projector that really adds a lot to the whole event. One of
the most incredible exhibitions that the museum has ever held
was about six months long in 2007 and 2008 that showcased the
Dead Sea Scrolls, or at least ten of them, with a record
attendance of 400,000 visitors. Research categories have also
grown with the fabulous museum and now include; botany,
paleontology, birds and mammals, mineralogy, marine
invertebrates, botany-climate change, herpetology, collections
care, geology and entomology. Current exhibitions include;
Lizards & Snakes: Alive!, Fossil Mysteries, Water: A California
story, All That Glitters The Splendor and Science of Gems and
Minerals, The Color of Water and Aerial Portraits of the
American West: Photographs by John Shelton. The museum offers
many exciting and interesting programs for the community to
learn and understand more about the collections and museum.
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