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Family-Friendly Attractions
Popular Family-Friendly Attractions in Middlesex County [2025]
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The Harvard Museum of Natural History
4.5
/5
78 reviews
4.7
Based on 1,228 reviews
Harvard University | 17.7 km from downtown
Phone +16174953045
Address: 26 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Recommended sightseeing time: 2 hours
No.4 of Best Things to Do in Middlesex County
Highlights:
Immersive exploration of the New England forest
Explore a world of countless plant and animal specimens
35% positive reviews
Verified user reviews
When my friend recommended this museum to me, I didn't pay much attention to it at first. I felt that it was difficult for a museum on campus to create a high degree of surprise. I didn't expect to be slapped in the face when I went there. I was so happy to visit it with my friends that I couldn't stop at all. The various strange exhibits were dazzling. The Harvard Museum of Natural History also has a place on the list of Boston's favorite museums.
Founded in 1998, the museum consists of three exhibition halls with different themes: plant specimens, comparative zoology, and mineral geology. Among them, the plant specimen hall was established first. At the beginning of the construction of the museum, it was established by more than 200,000 plant specimens donated by Harvard University professor Asa Gray. In 1977, the Mineral and Geology Museum was built with donations. The last one is the Comparative Zoology Hall built in 1859.
Each theme pavilion has its own wonderful features. I was so happy visiting each one. The glass flower display in the botanical specimen museum and the various animal specimens in the comparative zoology museum were all amazing. My favorite was the mineral geology museum, which had a variety of exquisite minerals. It feels like I rarely see such a large scale and exquisiteness in other museums.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History was built in 1998 and is the most popular museum on the Harvard University campus. It displays more than 12,000 animal and plant specimens, including specimens of dinosaurs, mammals, birds, as well as rare minerals and Harvard's very famous glass plant models, commonly known as "glass flowers" - the most essential part cannot be missed!
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