A unit of the university's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the current building is located in the Biological Sciences Building on the university's Central Campus. The museum has about 45,000 square feet of exhibit space.[2] The natural history collections began in 1837, and for many years the museum was based in the Alexander Ruthven Museums Building, dating to 1928, that it shared with three research museums (Anthropology, Zoology, Paleontology).[2] The museum also used to be administered through the same organization as the University Herbarium. The public exhibit museum was founded in 1956,[3] and today has more than 100,000 visitors annually.[2]
The Michigan Wildlife Gallery on the third floor displays exhibits on birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, plants, and fungi native to the Great Lakes. There are taxidermy specimens, exhibits on habitats, and displays about regional environmental problems. A mastodon trackway, the largest on display in the world, is part of this exhibit.
The Geology Displays on the fourth floor feature a collection of the several rocks and minerals.
Two galleries display exhibits on "Evolution & Health" and archaeological research work in the U-M Museum of Archaeological Anthropology. The first floor Rotunda Lobby currently displays "The Invisible World of Mites."
Gallery
Lobby rotunda in the Alexander Ruthven Museums Building
The Michigan Wildlife Gallery in the Alexander Ruthven Museums Building
The Michigan Wildlife Gallery in the Alexander Ruthven Museums Building
The Michigan Wildlife Gallery in the Alexander Ruthven Museums Building