The Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum is a

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...

housed at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

(BYU) in Provo,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States.

Description

The museum is named for Monte Lafayette Bean, a self-made Seattle-based magnate who entirely funded and paid for the building's construction. He also donated many of his own animal trophies to the collection. The Bean Museum opened on March 28, 1978, and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It maintains collections of

vascular The blood vessels are the components of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the human body. These vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to the tissues of the body. They also take waste and carbon dioxide awa ...

and

non-vascular plant Non-vascular plants are plants without a vascular system consisting of xylem and phloem. Instead, they may possess simpler tissues that have specialized functions for the internal transport of water. Non-vascular plants include two distantly rel ...

s, and

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 ...

and

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxon, taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with vertebral column, backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the ...

animals. Before 1978, it was known as the BYU Life Sciences Museum and did not have its own building. The Bean Museum now houses the Liger Shasta who lived at the Hogle Zoo from when she was born on May 6, 1948, till when she died, on July 12, 1972. Admission to the three-story museum is free of charge and over 100,000 unique visitors come to see the over 2 million specimens of insects, plants, reptiles, fish, shells, and birds.

References

External links

*
M.L. Bean Museum records, MSS 1132
a
L. Tom Perry Special Collections

Wilmer W. Tanner papers, including the records regarding the creation of and the endowment for the museum, MSS 7361
a
L. Tom Perry Special Collections

Natural history museums in Utah University museums in Utah Brigham Young University buildings Museums in Provo, Utah Museums established in 1978 Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums 1978 establishments in Utah {{Utah-museum-stub