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The Museum of Natural History is Rhode Island's
only natural history museum and is home to the state's only public
planetarium. For more than a century the Museum has served as a
unique educational, scientific and cultural resource by offering exciting
exhibitions, workshops and presentations that provide ways for children
and families to learn about our world and its people.
The Museum houses collections containing over one
quarter million objects pertaining to natural and cultural history
assembled from sites around the world. The natural history collections
include fossils, mollusks, minerals, rocks, mounted flora and fauna.
The cultural collections contains over 25,000 archaeological and
ethnographic specimens primarily of African, Native American and Pacific origin.
Visit the Museum and see our current
exhibitions:
Africa: Many Places, Many
Faces
This exhibit focuses on four ethnic groups and the eco-zones that they
inhabit. By drawing connections between people and their environments,
this exhibit explores the link between culture and nature, and
expose the vast diversity of the African continent. The exhibit consists of African material cultural objects, supplemented by natural
history specimens, photography, sound, and text panels which examine the individual cultures and the influences of African cultures
on our own society. In doing so, the exhibit will highlight the
connections between anthropology, art history, world history, and
ecology, and will examine African material culture through these various
lenses.
Exhibit was made possible through major funding support from Dr. Dwight
B. and Anna Cooper Heath and the Rhode Island Council for the
Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for
the Humanities.
 
All Things
Connected: Native American Creations
A showcase of Native American material culture.
Objects presented from the museum's collection of beadwork, baskets,
clothing, textiles, and other handmade objects. An interpretive component
of the exhibit focuses on how Native Americans interrelated with the
natural world.
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Circle of the Sea
The rich tapestry of Oceanic cultures - their
varied traditions, arts and skills - echoes the natural diversity found in
the Pacific islands. This exhibit features objects from the museum's
collection from Oceania and focuses on the use of natural materials by
skilled craftspeople in the creation of objects of beauty and
prestige.
Natural
Selections:
Treasures from the Museum's Collections
At the turn of the century, natural history
collecting became an international movement. This Victorian styled exhibit
showcases treasures donated by private collectors which inspired the
founding of the Museum of Natural History in 1896.
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Life of Stars: From Nebula to Supernova
On exhibit January 30, 2010
through January 2, 2011
Discover stars, the powerhouses of the universe! This new
astronomy exhibit tracks the evolution of stars, from their birth in
giant clouds of cold gas to their explosive end in supernovae and
planetary nebulae. Visitors will find out the surprising answers to
questions such as: Where does the iron in our blood come from?, What's
it like near a Black Hole?, and How long will the Sun keep shining?.
Hands-on activities allow visitors to explore the tools that astronomers
use to study the life cycle of stars.
View exciting imagery from the Spitzer Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray
Observatory and the new improved Hubble Space Telescope. With Hubble's
new imaging camera, it can view galaxies, star clusters, and other
objects across a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum, from
ultraviolet to near-infrared light. Developed in collaboration with Ian Dell'Antonio and Paul Huwe from
Brown University. Exhibit supported by NASA RI Space Grant Consortium
and Brown/NASA Northeast Regional Planetary Data Center.
Featuring
astronomical instruments from
Brown
University's Ladd Observatory.
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