Peabody Museum of Natural History

The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University (also known as the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History or the Yale Peabody Museum) is one of the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, an early paleontologist. The museum is best known for the Great Hall of Dinosaurs, which includes a mounted juvenile Brontosaurus and the mural The Age of Reptiles. The museum also has permanent exhibits dedicated to human and mammal evolution; wildlife dioramas; Egyptian artifacts; local birds and minerals; and Native Americans of Connecticut. the Peabody Museum is closed for its "first comprehensive renovation in 90 years"; it is slated to reopen in "early 2024". During the closure, some public programming has continued on campus or online. The Peabody Museum is located at 170 Whitney Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut and is staffed by nearly a hundred staff members. The original building was demolished in 1917; it moved to its current location in 1925, and has since expanded to occupy the Peabody Museum, the attached Kline Geology Laboratory, the Class of 1954 Environmental Sciences Center, parts of three additional buildings, and a field station at Long Island Sound. The museum also owns Horse Island in the Thimble Islands, which is not open to the public; it is used for experiments. The Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center, completed in 2001 and connected to the museum and the adjacent Kline Geology Laboratory, hosts approximately one-half of the museum's 13 million specimens. On August 28, 2018, Yale University announced a contribution of $160 million by Edward P. Bass towards the cost of the renovation of the museum. The landmark commitment ranks among the most generous gifts to Yale and is the largest known gift ever made to a natural history museum in the United States, helping to fund the renewal and expansion of the museum.