Human Environment
Public and private places and buildings, including cities, monuments, parks and reservations
Mama Velociraptor Needs Your Help!
The Cincinnati Museum has a bit of a problem. Not long ago the exhibit "Dinosaurs Unearthed" opened there, but what museum officials didn't know was that one of the Velociraptor brought to the museum was brooding a clutch of eggs! The babies hatched and escaped into the city, and the museum is call...
July 14, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Two "Sea Monsters" for the Price of One
In 1918 the paleontologists at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History were pretty busy. Rather than go out into the field to collect more specimens, they chipped away at specimens that had already been collected so that they could be put on display. When the famous fossil collector Char...
July 09, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Save the Laramie Dinosaurs!
At 5 PM on June 30th the lights went out in the halls of the University of Wyoming Geological Museum for the last time. Earlier in the month, state budget cuts forced the university to cut funding to the institution, which houses the spectacular Allosaurus "Big Al" and an Apatosaurus skeleton. Plea...
July 01, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
From the Castle: 'Forever' Institutions
Libraries, universities and museums are especially important in uncertain times
July 2009 |
By G. Wayne Clough
Thornton Wilder's Desert Oasis
For the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Douglas, Arizona was a place to "refresh the wells" and drive into the sunset
July 2009 |
By Tom Miller
Revisiting the First Ladies’ Homes
The oft-overlooked lives of America's first ladies are on display in house museums across the country
June 30, 2009 |
By Robin T. Reid
North Carolina's Origami Dinosaur Finds New Home
For the past seven years, a seven-foot-tall origami Tyrannosaurus has served as the mascot for the TEA ReX Teahouse in Charlotte, North Carolina. As The Charlotte Observer recently reported, however, the company is switching to a new online format, and the giant paper dinosaur would need a new home...
June 26, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
A Triceratops at the National Zoo
When I visited the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. earlier this year, I was a bit surprised to see a large Triceratops statue next to the giant anteater enclosure. There are a few dinosaurs at the zoo, like the Tyrannosaurus skull sculpture near the big cats exhibit, but the Triceratops seemed out...
June 24, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Across Africa, Finding Common Ground in Their Art
António Ole and Aimé Mpane came together to converse through artwork in a new insallation at the National Museum of African Art
June 23, 2009 |
By Joseph Caputo
Apatosaurus on Ice!
The wonderful exhibit "Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries" will soon be coming to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and to promote it the museum has commissioned a special TV ad that can only be described as "Apatosaurus on Ice."Unfortunately, though, some people might think this ...
June 22, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Where is the Dinosaur Capital of the World?
Earlier this week the Burpee Museum of Natural History and the Discovery Center Museum, both in Rockford, Illinois, held a ground-breaking ceremony on a $10 million expansion for the museums. The construction will give both institutions more exhibition space, and if the comments of Burpee Museum o...
June 16, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Brachiosaurus Moves to Indianapolis
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, home of the Dinosphere, is welcoming some new additions this week. As reported by local TV station WISH, the museum just added a mother and baby Brachiosaurus sculpture to the outside of the building.
June 10, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Decapitation in Durham
Sometime over this past weekend the "Brontosaurus" at Durham, North Carolina's Museum of Life and Science lost its head. The statue stood for more than three decades in what had been called the Pre-History Trail, and everyone was shocked to see that had been vandalized. The crime was made even more...
June 04, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Bringing the Wright Flyer to Life
In a movie first, curators and filmmakers collaborated to animate artifacts for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
June 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
The Triumph of Frank Lloyd Wright
The Guggenheim Museum, turning 50 this year, showcases the trailblazer's mission to elevate American society through architecture
June 2009 |
By Arthur Lubow
Fairhope, Alabama's Southern Comfort
Memorist Rick Bragg finds forgiving soil along the brown sand stretch of Mobile Bay
June 2009 |
By Rick Bragg
Brain Cells for Socializing
Does an obscure nerve cell help explain what gorillas, elephants, whales—and people—have in common?
June 2009 |
By Ingfei Chen
Dinosaurs Stalk the Night at the Smithsonian
There appear to be three themes that pop up in many of the major summer blockbusters being released this year: time travel, robots, and dinosaurs. I have already covered two of this summer's bigger dino-flicks, Ice Age 3 and Land of the Lost, but the newly-released Night at the Museum: Battle of th...
May 28, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
"Chinasaurs" come to Maryland
If you are a dinophile in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland, you may want to clear your plans for this weekend. Tomorrow, the Maryland Science Center in the city's Inner Harbor will raise the curtain on the traveling exhibit "Chinasaurs-Dinosaur Dynasty." The webpage promoting the exhibit promise...
May 22, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
A Green Addition to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Meeting House
Architects of the First Unitarian Society’s new eco-friendly addition find inspiration in the ideas of original architect Frank Lloyd Wright
May 21, 2009 |
By Laura Kearney
