Olduvai Gorge Museum
The Olduvai Gorge Museum is located in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Northern Tanzania on the edge of the Olduvai Gorge. The museum was founded by Mary Leakey and is now under the jurisdiction of the Tanzanian government's Department of Cultural Antiquities and is managed by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. It is a museum dedicated to the appreciation and understanding of the Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli fossil sites.
History
The museum was founded in the late 1970s by Mary Leakey, an archaeologist and paleoanthropologist who conducted research in the gorge for decades. The museum was created to house and showcase paleoanthropological artifacts from the surrounding area. After Mary's death, the Olduvai Gorge Museum was put under control of the Tanzanian government's Department of Cultural Antiquities. During the mid-1990s, the J. Paul Getty Museum's Department of Conservation renovated and added to the museum. This included a new wing with exhibits that were designed by the Getty Museum.The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority replaced the original museum structure with the construction of a new museum and visitors center which opened to the public in 2018. The new museum construction included the expansion and improvement of museum exhibits, enhancing the educational experience of the museum's visitors, the addition of a cultural boma with spaces where visitors can explore aspects of Maasai culture, as well as a small restaurant and a covered theater-like viewing platform that provides visitors an inspiring view of the gorge. Both the new museum, visitor center, restaurant and theater-like viewing platform were designed and built by Eng. Joshua Mwankunda, Manager for Cultural Heritage Department at Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority so that the exhibit halls form a ring around a central open area at the heart of the museum, mimicking the layout of a Maasai boma embracing Maasai architectural abilities.