The Peabody Museum has been part of Yale, and part of New Haven, for more than 150 years. In the 19th Century, the creation of a natural history museum was the science startup of its day, helping Yale evolve from a small college to a major university.
Now we are embarking on an effort to create a 21st Century museum of natural history. What is natural history in 2018? Didn’t it go away? Far from it. Natural history is observing the world to comprehend it. It goes by many names now, but whatever it is called, it has never been a bigger part of the human enterprise, and it has never been more important for people, whether they are university students, school kids, or anyone else, to engage in the act of observing and the process of understanding. Objects, specimens, collections, and the information associated with them remain fundamental to this work. The evolved Peabody will be a place that will share and celebrate our understanding of the planet.
And there will be dinosaurs.
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