Exhibitions

Our Birds: Through a Lens of Hope

A stunning new photographic exhibition in the museum lobby captures North American bird life. The photographs come from Gonzalo Giribet, Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and Director of the Museum of...

Sea Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Imagination

On view through May 17, 2026. Embark on a daring voyage into the depths of human imagination at the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s new special exhibition, Sea Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Imagination. Featuring ancient mariners' maps, literature...

In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss

In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss is an immersive multidisciplinary experience that marries art and science through a modern artistic interpretation of Henry David Thoreau’s preserved plants. Thoreau was prolific in his...

From the Hands of the Makers

Closing April 14, 2024 Over their fifty years creating the Glass Flowers, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, father and son, continually experimented with materials and methods that pushed the boundaries of glassworking. Years later, their complex and varied...

Lily Simonson: Painting the Deep

Lily Simonson Painting the Deep Harvard University Professor Peter Girguis luminescent pigments sea of darkness

Microbial Life: A Universe at the Edge of Sight

 Microbial Life: A Universe at the Edge of Sight Harvard’s Microbial Science Initiative bacteria organisms microbes microbiome

Orb-Weavers: Web Masters of the Spider World

orb-weaving spiders, Arthropod, arachnid, National Science Foundation, evolution of the orb web

World in a Drop: Photographic Explorations of Microbial Life

The minuscule ecosystem within a single drop of water is home to an astonishing diversity of organisms busily living out their lives and interconnected by myriad complex relationships. The photographic exhibit World in a Drop is an aesthetic journey into...

Next of Kin: Seeing Extinction through the Artist’s Lens

This exhibition will be closed Tuesday, July 11 from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Exhibition on view through July 16, 2017 We live in a time when an alarming array of plants and animals struggle to even exist in a world that is increasingly dominated and altered by...

Nests & Eggs

May 2007 - August 2008 Nests & Eggs is a HMNH exhibition that draws on the University’s extensive collections. Visitors of all ages will enjoy learning some of the myriad ways that birds nurture and protect their young. The exhibition features stunning...

Looking at Animals: Photographs by Henry Horenstein

September 28, 2007 - April 27, 2008 With the vision of both an artist and a scientist, acclaimed Boston photographer Henry Horenstein has created haunting images of creatures from land and sea. His photographs offer new ways to see and think about animals...

Looking at Leaves: Photographs by Amanda Means

May 8, 2008 - February 8, 2009 Dramatic black and white images of single leaves by New York photographer Amanda Means are a monument to the remarkable diversity and beauty of nature's botanical forms. These detailed blow-ups, some printed as large as 38 x...