University of Iowa Museum of Natural History — Attraction in Iowa City

Nestled in a 1907 building, the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is showing its age: restrooms are found on only one of the three exhibition floors (at least according to their map), and you have to leave the main exhibit space for a while to get from Iowa Hall to other galleries, creating a sense of discontinuity. I wonder if there has ever been a case in which the auditorium was closed to museum visitors -- moving between Bird and Mammal Halls (both on the third floor) would certainly have become a nightmare under such a scenario.

Despite a few minor issues with its logistics, this museum is in no shortage of good things to offer. Iowa Hall does a nice job of introducing the geology, prehistory, ethnology, and ecology of the Hawkeye State. Bird and Mammal Halls even have a global focus -- I bet few would expect to see a Giant Panda diorama in a college town in the Midwest. Also, I enjoyed the display cases scattered throughout the building (outside of the main galleries) that tell the stories of early anthropologists and naturalists associated with the Museum and the University. And I applaud the practice of displaying specimens along with artifacts (e.g., the muskox diorama and the walrus ivory objects collected by Frank Russell). From a personal perspective, though, I would have liked the Museum to bring out more of its ethnographic holdings. How can you "inspire in visitors of all ages understanding and a sense of wonder, discovery, respect, and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds" without showing those collections to the people?

Other than Biosphere Discovery Hub, the exhibits are very old-fashioned. Of course, this does not mean that they aren't good. The Bird Hall is especially well-done: in addition to the taxidermies and an introductory exhibit label, each group of birds (in the taxonomic rank of order) comes with several (usually three) natural history tidbits that are a delight to read (e.g., the snow-plunging behavior of Great Gray Owl). In comparison, in the Mammal Hall some animals only get the bare minimum attention and are not even identified to the species level (e.g., marten and otter). Quality of the dioramas vary quite a bit as well: while some are "annotated" by a sketch with the animal and plant species in the diorama highlighted and numbered, others just get a label with the most basic background information. Moreover, the lighting inside the Museum isn't optimal for the appreciation and viewing of these dioramas.

I probably should not be too critical about this museum as its admission is free. However, it is closed for three days in a week, which I believe is uncommon for museums of such scale. If you are a visitor to Iowa City, chances are good that you may not get to see it open. For the locals, on the other hand, the Museum remains a solid way to spend 1–2 hours on a gloomy day -- in spite of some outdated labels, the core of its exhibitions still holds up well in the...

To be perfectly honest, Frank, I just wasn't prepared for the sass of that sloth. The sloth-sass, as they say. There I was, perusing this here museum of natural history, and suddenly BAM. Sloth. Giant sloth. Mega sloth. Super Giant Mega sloth. What was I to do? I wasn't trained for this kind of situation. I hadn't prepared to meet my sloth this day. So here I am now, Franklin, over my head in natural history. But you know what? Compared to the sass-sloth, the rest of this place is, well, also natural history. Stuffed mammals over there, stuffed birds over here, it's all...

This museum was very nice. It had a good mix of old exhibits and taxidermy that I found fascinating. The more taxidermy heavy exhibits up above we're really neat, but some of them need to be restored.

My favorite part of the museum was their stuffed dodo bird. I had never seen one before, and they were fluffier than I expected. They had other rare/extinct birds on display, too, and it was sobering to see how we've lost those species forever.

If you have an hour and are in the area, I recommend checking out...