Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Santa Barbara, CA | |
Coordinates | 34°26′28.14″N 119°42′52.30″W / 34.4411500°N 119.7145278°W |
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Type | Natural history museum |
Website | http://www.sbnature.org |
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Santa Barbara, California.
It reconnects more than 150,000 people each year (including their 5,700 members)[citation needed] to nature indoors and outdoors. Nestled in nature, the museum is located along Mission Creek in the Mission Canyon area. The museum has ten indoor exhibit halls focusing on regional natural history including astronomy, birds, insects, geology, mammals, marine life, paleontology, plant life, and the Chumash Indians. It holds a research library, the John & Peggy Maximus Art Gallery [citation needed] and is the only museum to house a full-dome planetarium on the Central Coast.
History
The early roots of the museum date back to the 1880s, when a group of professional and amateur scientists, including botanist
Though it began from a collection of bird eggs, the holdings of the museum were soon expanded into other realms by its board of directors. The successor to William Dawson as director was
In 1937, Arthur Sterry Coggeshall came to Santa Barbara, and took the position of director of the museum, a title he held for 21 years.[5] He had also worked at various prestigious museums, such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Upon coming, he convinced Max Fleischmann, heir to the Fleischmann Yeast fortune, to build Fleischmann Auditorium as a condition of his employment. Coggeshall was later a key player in the foundation of the California Association of Museums and the Western Museum Association.
Following Coggeshall, Dr. Vertress L. VanderHoof, a research
Albert Einstein, who was visiting the museum with his wife in 1931, remarked, "I can see that this museum has been built by the work of love."[8]
Exhibits
The museum is renowned for fine
Temporary exhibits cover the whole range of natural history topics such as dinosaurs, sharks, antique natural history art, "Butterflies Alive" and “Bringing the Condors Home” telling the story of the decline and beginning of recovery of the California condor. The museum’s Gladwin Planetarium was renovated in early 2005 and equipped with technology to display distant
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center, formerly known as the "Ty Warner Sea Center", is an off-site facility owned and operated by the Museum of Natural History and is located on Santa Barbara’s historic Stearns Wharf. It originally opened in 1986 and was expanded and renovated in 2005. Among the exhibits of the Sea Center are a life-size model of a gray whale and calf, tide pool with waves rushing into it every 60 seconds, the Wet Deck featuring direct access to the water below, the Channel Theater, the Workshop, the Whale Karaoke station, and the plastinated dolphin.
The museum has one of the largest extant collections of historical Native American basketry by Chumash basket weaver artists.
See also
- List of museums in California
- Visual arts by indigenous Californians
- Native American basket weavers
- Basket weaving
References
- ^ Carroll, Mary. "A history of the Santa Barbara Society of Natural History and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History" (PDF). Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. pp. 9–10. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
- ^ "SBMNH: History". Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ^ North Adams Transcript – July 23, 1932.
- ^ "PCAD - the Pacific Coast Architecture Database - Home".
- ^ Richard Oglesby, 1991, 75th Anniversary: Santa barbara Museum of Natural History, Noticias, vol. 37, no. 4
- ^ Richard Ogelsby, ibid.
- ^ Ogelsby, ibid.
- ^ Risley, M. (1985). Santa Barbara a traveler's guide. Goleta, CA: The Alternative Press.
- ^ Ray Strong: An American Artist, 2015, www.theraystrong project.com
- ^ Martellotti, Patricia (March 1, 2024). "Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History temporarily closes Chumash Life exhibit due to new regulations". News Channel 3-12. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
- ^ Kettmann, Matt (January 14, 2015). "Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Remodel Approved". Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved May 7, 2015.