Harvard Museum of Natural History

Last weekend was the first weekend of the month and therefore Free Museum Weekend for those of us Bank of America credit cards. The Harvard Museum of Natural History is one of the Boston area museums that participates in the program which means that we only have to pay for Maura as both Jennifer and I have cards from BoA. Free Museum Weekend is probably my favorite credit card perk. Because we had not visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History recently and we were in the mood for a family outing we hopped on the Red Line Sunday afternoon and traveled to Harvard Square for a stroll across the Harvard University campus and a visit to the museum.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a traditional museum with exhibits in glass cases. It has extensive collections illustrating vertebrate anatomy, botany and mineralogy as well as some mollusks and arthropods and an interesting collection of fossils. The collections were intended for research and for educating students but they are also a draw for the general public. The stuffed and mounted animals are probably the most popular exhibits but I find them a bit sad. Maura is sometimes bothered by the fumes from the preservatives that keep them in good shape.

My favorite collections in the museum are the glass flowers and the mineral collection. The glass flowers are reproductions of living plants in imperishable glass. They are both accurate and beautiful. I’m not much of an expert at botany so I find I learn more from the glass plants than I do from other exhibits but I also marvel at them. I’m not sure Maura has much interest in botany but she doesn’t mind looking at the flowers because they are works of art.

The minerals are also beautiful and fascinating. I’ve always had an interest in geology since I was a small child and it was one of my majors in college. I could probably stare at the mineral samples in the cases for hours, partly filling in gaps in my knowledge of minerals and partly reminiscing over college days. Maura likes minerals and I think she would love to collect them herself though she gets bored of them before I do and wanders to the edges of the room where multimedia presentations cover other aspects of Earth science. 

Connected to the Museum of Natural History is the Peabody Museum which houses Harvard’s ethnographic collections and archaeological collections from Mesoamerica and the United States. I find them interesting but I never get to spend as much time exploring them as I would like. We never get to the Peabody early in our visit and Maura doesn't enjoy them as much as I do. On this trip Jennifer and Maura left me to explore the Peabody Museum on my own for an hour or so while they went back to the Museum of Natural History. It was a good compromise. Maura was saved from boredom and I got to see some things I enjoyed that I would have missed otherwise.

Harvard Museum of Natural History

On Tuesday, December 8th, we made an excursion to the Harvard Museum of Natural History on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge. The whole family made the trip. Jennifer had taken the day off and my parents were making their annual holiday visit to exchange gifts and see their granddaughter. It was not our most enjoyable trip, though that was hardly the fault of the museum, which has some truly spectacular exhibits. I think we were all a bit tired, my father was not feeling well, and I was in a lousy mood. Still, I think we all enjoyed the time we spent at the museum

The trip started well with lunch at the John Harvard Brewhouse in Harvard Square. The food and the service were good and for the adults there was tasty microbrewery beer. I enjoyed mine immensely. The walk across the Harvard Campus to the museum was rather less pleasant since the day was rather raw and it was a relief to arrive and get inside out of the weather.

The HMNH has some fascinating collections. On this trip we skipped the Great Hall of Mammals, probably the museum’s greatest draw, because on our last visit the fumes from the preservatives made Maura ill. This time we gave more attention to the remarkable display of glass flowers, which are truly amazing. Copies in glass of botanical specimens, they are both beautiful and accurate; superb examples of both natural beauty and remarkable craftsmanship. I would love to return alone someday to spend more time admiring them and improving my knowledge of botany.

The other highlight of the trip for me was the brief excursion we made into the Peabody Museum of Ethnography and Archaeology, which is connected to the Museum of Natural History. We spent little time there because we were already at the end of our day but I found the exhibit of mural paintings from the southwestern United States and Mexico to be really fascinating. I would love to see more of the Peabody. Next time we make a visit to museums at Harvard we’ll have to go to the Peabody first. So far we’ve barely scratched the surface of it.

Jennifer had planned a side trip after the museum visit to Burdick’s, reputed to have the best hot chocolate in the Boston Metropolitan Area. I would have preferred to skip that part of the day, but Maura was excited about it so I didn’t say anything. When we found the place it was crowded and there was no chance of the five of us finding seats. I found the place uninviting and oppressive and wanted to leave. I managed to anger Jennifer by my expression of indifference to the idea of getting something to go and my refusal to make a decision about it. I didn’t want to be blamed for disappointing Maura. In the end Maura and Jennifer got some hot chocolate, the rest of us didn’t, no one but Maura was really happy and I’ll never know if the hot chocolate’s reputation is deserved or not.