Museum of Science (Boston)


The Museum of Science is a nature and science museum and indoor zoological establishment located in Science Park, a plot of land in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, spanning the Charles River. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, the museum features a number of live and interactive presentations throughout the building each day, along with scheduled film showings at the Charles Hayden Planetarium and the Mugar Omni Theater.
The Museum is a member of the Association of Science and Technology Centers and the American Alliance of Museums. Additionally, the Museum of Science is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, being home to over 100 animals.

History

Origin and early years

The museum began as the Boston Society of Natural History in 1830, founded by a collection of men who wished to share scientific interests. Their first meeting was held on February 9, 1830 with seven original members in attendance: Walter Channing, Benjamin D. Greene, George Hayward, John Ware, Edward Brooks, Amos Binney, and George B. Emerson. It was more commonly called the Boston Museum of Natural History in the 19th century, and this name occurs frequently in the literature. In 1862, after the society had gone through several temporary facilities, a building was constructed in the Back Bay area of the city and dubbed the New England Museum of Natural History.
The museum was located next to the original Rogers Building of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and both neoclassical structures were designed by William G. Preston. The original MIT building was demolished in 1939, but the Natural History Museum building survives today, repurposed as a home furnishings showcase.
A great deal of scientific work was done by the society, especially around geology, and the results of this work can be found in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History which are now freely available online. A library and children's rooms were added to the museum around 1900. It was renamed the Museum of Science in 1939, under the directorship of Henry Bradford Washburn, Jr., a renowned American mountaineer.
The Boston Museum of Natural History of 1830/1864–1945 should not be confused with the private Warren Museum of Natural History. The contents of the latter collection, including the first intact mastodon, were relocated to the American Museum of Natural History of New York City in 1906.
Museum Then and Now, an exhibit of artifacts from the early years of the society, is located near the second floor Blue Wing entrance to the Theater of Electricity in today's museum. .

Post WWII

After World War II, the old Museum of Science building was sold, and the museum was relocated, again under the name Boston Museum of Science. Under the leadership of Bradford Washburn, the society negotiated with the Metropolitan District Commission for a 99-year lease of the land on the Charles River Dam Bridge, now known as Science Park. The museum pays $1 a year to the state for use of the land. Construction and development began in 1948, and the museum opened in 1951, arguably the first all-encompassing science museum in the country.
In these first few years, the museum developed a traveling planetarium, a version of which is still brought to many elementary schools in the Greater Boston area every year. They also obtained during these early years "Spooky", a great horned owl who became a symbol or mascot of the museum; he lived to age 38, the longest any great horned owl is known to have lived. Today, a number of other taxidermed specimens remain on display, teaching children about the animals of New England and of the world.
Science Park station was opened as an infill station on what is now the MBTA Green Line in August 1955, allowing easier access to the museum by public transportation. In 1955, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology donated its Round Hill generator and its enclosure to the museum, which would become the centerpiece of its Theater of Electricity. Elihu Thomson Theater of Electricity. The Charles Hayden Planetarium, a permanent building, was opened in 1958.
Many more expansions continued into the 1970s and 1980s. In 1999, The Computer Museum in Boston closed and became part of the Museum of Science, integrating some of its educational displays, although most of the historical artifacts were moved to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

21st century

A major renovation and expansion took place during 2005 and 2006. In 2010, the Charles Hayden Planetarium was closed for renovation, and has since reopened.
The main entrance to the museum straddles the border between the cities of Boston and Cambridge, and the boundary is indicated by a marker embedded in the floor inside the museum. In 2013, the Museum of Science was the venue for the first joint session of the Boston and Cambridge city councils, to discuss policy measures to improve retention of talented recent university graduates in the area.
Starting in 2013, the Museum of Science undertook a major renovation to upgrade its physical structure, and to develop new educational content. A $250 million campaign upgraded nearly half of the exhibit halls from 2012, and opened three new major exhibits: the Hall of Human Life, the Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River, and What Is Technology? The Hall of Human Life opened in November 2013 in the newly expanded Level 2 of the Green Wing, and has a focus on human biology. The audio kinetic sculpture Archimedean Excogitation was moved to the atrium to make way for a new exhibit in the lower lobby called the Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River. This exhibit opened in 2016, creating a new entry to the museum with better views of the Charles River and Boston-Cambridge skyline.
On October 18, 2016 former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg revealed that his foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, would donate $50 million to the museum, the largest gift in the institution's 186-year history. He grew up in nearby Medford, and his donation is focused on expanding the educational programs of the museum.
In 2024, the museum started construction of a Public Science Common, to be located where the Cahners Auditorium previously existed. This is a new, flexible meeting space enclosed in glass, and replaces an earlier windowless physical volume which had turned a blank wall to the Charles River. The new space will serve as a central hub for three Centers for Public Science Learning -- the Center for Life Sciences, the Center for the Environment, and the Center for Space Sciences. Lead funding is by Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the project is planned for completion in 2026.

Future

In front of the museum, a memorial to Leonard Nimoy, the television and movie actor who grew up nearby in the West End of Boston, is planned for installation. The monumental sculpture will be a larger-than-life representation of a hand displaying Nimoy's iconic "live long and prosper" gesture. Co-sponsored by Nimoy's family, the project is at least 75% funded.

Exhibit halls

Blue Wing
  • Theater of Electricity: features the Round Hill generator, the world's largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator, designed by Robert J. Van de Graaff. The show includes demonstrations of Tesla coils and other electrical apparatus.
  • Seeing is Deceiving: a collection of optical illusions, including many motorized illusions
  • Arctic Adventure: Exploring with Technology
  • Exploring with AI: Making the Invisible Visible
  • Giant Sequoia Tree
  • Making Models: exhibit on the use of physical and abstract models to understand the real world
  • Mathematica: A World of Numbers... and Beyond: a roomful of classic kinetic and static mathematical exhibits by designers Charles and Ray Eames
  • Natural Mysteries: an investigative exhibit on classification of mysterious objects and natural history specimens
  • Math Moves!: Experiencing Ratio and Proportion: an immersive exploration of math and proportion
  • Clark Collection of Mechanical Movements: over 100 working models of mechanical motions and linkages, the Clark Collection is split between an area inside the Theater of Electricity, and the Engineering Design Workshop exhibit.
  • Faces of Science: Ambassadors for Equity: How professionals highlighted use their life experiences in their fields.
  • Natural Beauty: The Harold Grinspoon Collection: a collection of very large and rare mineralogical crystals and specimens
  • Science in the Park: a playground built on Level 2 of the Blue Wing using familiar objects to investigate every day science
  • Investigate!: a house-sized collection of rooms to explore using scientific thinking
  • Nanotechnology
  • Take a Closer Look
  • Dinosaurs: Modeling the Mesozoic: a collection of fossils and life-size models of dinosaurs and extinct animals, including a full-size Tyrannosaurus rex model
  • Colossal Fossil: Triceratops Cliff: a 65-million-year-old fossil, discovered in the Dakota Badlands in 2004
  • Machines & Transportation
  • To the Moon
  • Engineering Design Workshop: an area to design, build, and test solutions to problems. As of 2024, this is located on Level 1 of the Blue Wing.
  • Behind the Scenes(Closed in 2025
  • Additional temporary exhibits: As of early 2024, the temporary exhibits include Innovation: Earth and a Sustainable Farm.
Green Wing
  • New England Habitats: life-sized dioramas showcasing some typical New England habitats and animals
  • A Bird's World
  • Colby Room: a classic explorer's trophy room filled with stuffed animal heads from big-game hunting, preserved as a historical exhibit and also used for meetings
  • Hall of Human Life: an exhibit of interactive activities focusing on human biology
  • Rotating temporary exhibits: November through January, this typically includes an exhibit on trains titled All Aboard! Trains at Science Park.
Red Wing
Miscellaneous
  • Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River: an open area at the rear of the entrance hall, filled with information about the Charles River and river science in general
  • The Rock Garden: an outdoors area in front of the museum, showcasing boulder-sized mineral specimens with accompanying plaques explaining their provenance and significance
  • The five exterior decorative aluminum panels formerly on the facade facing the Charles River Basin were created by Belmont sculptor Theodore Barbarossa. They have been removed for the construction of a new glass-enclosed Public Science Common, and plans for the displaced artworks are unknown.
File:MOS Boston on Charles.jpg|thumb|800px|center|The Museum of Science spans the length of the Charles River Dam, including a dedicated parking garage at far left. The white dome at left houses the Theater of Electricity, while the dome at the right houses the planetarium. The twin towers of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge are visible at the background right.