The Bell Museum, formerly known as the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History, is located at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. The museum's new location on the St. Paul campus opened July 13–15, 2018. The world-renowned Minnesota wildlife dioramas, numerous animal specimens from all over the world, and the 120-seat digital Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan

Planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

theater are highlighted features of the new facility. The museum's former location in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

is closed as the work to move to the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus began in January 2017. The museum is part of the University's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

History

The museum was established by state legislative mandate in 1872 to collect, preserve, skillfully prepare, display, and interpret Minnesota's diverse animal and plant life for scholarly research, teaching and for public appreciation, enrichment, and enjoyment. Its governance belongs, by state legislative designation, to the University of Minnesota. The museum was first located in a single room in a building on the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus. The museum was reorganized by physician and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

Thomas Sadler Roberts Thomas Sadler Roberts (February 16, 1858 - April 19, 1946) was an American physician known for his work in ornithology, bird conservation and for his book ''The Birds of Minnesota'' (1932), a comprehensive account on the birds of the Minnesota ar ...

with the help of his friend James Ford Bell, the founder of

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

and a passionate

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

ist, who put up half the cost ($150,000) for a new building to house some new nature dioramas. Bell wanted the university to add a diorama of

gray wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

in their natural environment, in order promote their conservation, since the state paid hunters a bounty for killing wolves in the 1930s. The remaining funds were raised through donations and federal government funding, and the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History opened in 1940 at University Avenue and Church Street. The building was expanded in the 1960s and 1970s, but by the 1980s the building was suffering from leaks, cracks, mold and water damage, which threatened the collections and the dioramas. After a decades-long planning and legislative process, led by State Representative

Alice Hausman Alice Hausman (born July 31, 1942) is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. As a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented District 66A, which includes portions ...

, the Minnesota Legislature struck an agreement where the university would borrow $51.5 million for the project and the state would pay the debt service on the bonds over a span of 25 years. James Ford Bell's grandson, Ford Bell, is a former president of the American Alliance of Museums and a trustee of the James Ford Bell Foundation, which donated $3 million for the new museum. The university broke ground on the project on

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 b ...

, April 22, 2016.

New building details

The Bell Museum finished development of a new facility to house its public collections and a 120-seat digital planetarium, and serve as a public gateway to University of Minnesota research. Designed by

Perkins and Will Perkins&Will is a global design practice founded in 1935. Since 1986, the group has been a subsidiary of Lebanon-based Dar Al-Handasah (Arabic: دار الهندسة). Phil Harrison has been the firm's CEO since 2006. History The firm was establ ...

, the new museum finished construction on the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota at 2088 Larpenteur Ave W,

Falcon Heights, MN Falcon Heights is a suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Saint Paul and a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 5,321 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It became a village in 1949 ...

. New enhancements include an outdoor learning landscape, a dedicated parking lot, and new permanent and temporary exhibit galleries. The estimated project budget of the new facility and moving is $64.2 million. In 2014, the Minnesota Legislative session passed the bonding bill which included $51.5 million in funding for the new facility.

Collections

With more than 4 million specimens, the Bell's scientific collections have provided opportunities for research and teaching since the museum's inception in 1872. The museum recently launched the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas, an online, searchable interface integrating over 5 terabytes of data from the Bell Museum on birds, mammals, fishes, plants, and

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

to enhance research capacity to perform a range of activities from biological surveys to

planning. (bellatlas.umn.edu) This database contains over 400,000 scientific records and as many as 175,000 high-resolution images with plans to expand entries and specimen photographs. Amphibian and Reptile Collection
The

Amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

and

Reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

Collection is a diverse collection that has a heavy focus on the upper Midwest region and represents one of the best collections of

herpetological Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning " reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and r ...

material for this region. Bird Collection
The Bird Collection Collection specimens come from the upper midwest and the majority of these are from Minnesota. In addition to this research collection, the Bell Museum maintains a dedicated teaching collection that is actively used in courses at the University. Fish Collection
The Fish Collection contain specimens from the Menage expedition to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

in the 1890s; fish from Hawaii collected in the early 1900s; and many other specimens from across the continental United States. Fungi Collection
The Fungi Collection comprise about 10% of Minnesota

, and the remainder are from North America and elsewhere. Lichen Collection
The Lichen Collection is one of the largest

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.herbaria in the US, and one of the few fully digitalized in the world. It houses collections of lichens worldwide. Invertebrate Collection
The Mollusks and Crustaceans Invertebrate Collection house

freshwater mollusks Freshwater molluscs are those members of the Phylum Mollusca which live in freshwater habitats, both lotic (flowing water) such as rivers, streams, canals, springs, and cave streams (stygobite species) and lentic (still water) such as lakes, po ...

collected in Minnesota, and represent an important Upper Midwest Collection. The

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

collection holds the old Minneapolis Library collection of Indo-Pacific mollusks. Bell Museum of Natural History diorama

Mammal Collection
The majority of the Mammal Collection are standard, dry skin and skull preparations, but the Bell has a reasonably large collection of full skeletons and a growing collection of fluid preserved specimens. Vascular Plant Collection
The Vascular Plant Collection contains samples of vegetative parts, cones, fruit, and seeds.

Exhibits

Elk Diorama in Bell Museum of Natural History

This description refers to exhibits in the museum's former location on 10 Church St.
Dioramas
The Bell Museum's dioramas were located on two floors of the Minneapolis site, and displayed Minnesota's habitats, along with the birds, animals, plants and insects that populate them. There are

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

, beavers, cranes, fish, and more. The dioramas serve as an opportunity to learn animal facts, observe animal behavior, and find out how species survive. Constructed between 1920 and the late 1940s, the Bell Museum's dioramas illustrate what Minnesota was like before the ax and plow. Renowned artist

Francis Lee Jaques Francis Lee Jaques (September 28, 1887 - July 24, 1969) was an American wildlife painter. Jaques hunted and trapped with his father and connected with editors and writers from major hunting magazines. While still a teenager, Jacques paid ten dolla ...

completed backgrounds on nine of the large dioramas and ten of the medium-size dioramas. Jaques grew up in Minnesota where he pursued his passion for painting and illustrating nature. Touch and See Room
The Touch and See Room came into being in 1968. Public Education Coordinator Richard Barthelemy, known as Bart, realized that young and old visitors alike wanted to get their hands on all the specimens that are traditionally behind glass in museums. Bart started by sitting down with groups and passing around bones and furs and feathers and such and talking with them about what was there. He teamed with Dr. Roger Johnson from the University of Minnesota's Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education to figure out how to make the experience work at its best. Shortly after Touch and See opened, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

in Washington D.C. visited the Bell and then launched its famous discovery room. Now, the touch and see room is home not only to the original collections, but also to multiple live specimens, including snakes, frogs, geckos, cockroaches, and tarantulas. Rainforest Gallery
“Under the Fig Leaf” is a living rainforest and active research project managed by the museum's Curator of Plants, Professor George Weiblen. Many of the plants were grown from seeds collected by Weiblen in tropical forests around the world like Papua New Guinea. Visitors can get a ground floor and canopy view of the mini rainforest and learn about related University of Minnesota research. ExploraDome
The museum's former film screening room was retrofitted to house a halfdome planetarium theater. Museum staff lead audiences on a virtual voyage from the surface of the Earth to the edge of the known universe in an intimate environment, holding up to 15 people per show. All presentations are given live by a planetarium educator and allow for audience interaction, unless noted as "pre-recorded." Geodome
The museum's inflatable geodome is the traveling version of the ExploraDome that is brought to the school and locations across the state and region. It was the first geodome theater in Minnesota. Primarily used for educational outreach visits, the geodome also makes an annual trip the Minnesota State Fair for STEM Day. Traveling Exhibits
The Bell Museum of Natural History develops and circulates exhibitions on a broad range of topics. With these exhibitions, the Bell seeks to instill a greater appreciation of our natural world and promote a better understanding of contemporary ecological issues. Although many of the exhibitions are designed for small-to medium-sized spaces, the Bell's exhibits have traveled to museums of all sizes throughout the United States and Canada. Most of the exhibits require gallery installation, but several are self-supporting, lightweight, and easily assembled. These are ideal for bookings in either museum or non-museum settings, such as visitor centers, schools, and libraries.

Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Planetarium

The Minnesota Planetarium Society (MNPS) was a Minnesota-based organization for the promotion of an education in

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

which operated the Minnesota Planetarium from 1960 until it was closed in 2002. When the Minneapolis Central Library was torn down in 2002, the former planetarium was closed with the understanding that it would be rebuilt as part of the new library. In September 2011, the Planetarium Society merged with the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum of Natural History instead. The new building features a digital planetarium that uses INSIGHT Dual Laser 4K projection system. The planetarium is named after

Whitney MacMillan Whitney MacMillan (September 25, 1929 – March 11, 2020) was an American billionaire heir and businessman.Brian SolomonThe Secretive Cargill Billionaires And Their Family Tree ''Forbes'', 9/22/2011Brenda McDonaldBusinessman Whitney MacMillan to ...

and his wife.

Programs

The museum has a variety of programming and events that caters to a range of age groups. Science labs, summer camps, Spotlight Science, Sensory Friendly Saturdays, After Hours, and Star Parties are several of the offerings that spark an interest and appreciation for science, technology, art, engineering and math.

Admission

References

External links

Bell Museum Homepage

College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences Homepage

Bell Museum of Natural History records
University Archives, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell Museum Of Natural History Museums in Minneapolis Natural history museums in Minnesota University museums in Minnesota University of Minnesota Planetaria in the United States Museums established in 1872 1872 establishments in Minnesota