The Mineralogical and Geological Museum at Harvard (MGMH), or the Harvard Mineralogical Museum, is located on the campus of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. It is one of the three research museums which collectively comprise the collection of the

Harvard Museum of Natural History The Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) is a natural history museum housed in the University Museum Building, located on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It features 16 galleries with 12,000 specimens drawn fr ...

History

Harvard professor

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

oversaw the construction of the University Museum building to house a museum of comparative zoology; the building was completed in 1859. Its collections soon expanded beyond comparative zoology into other natural sciences. In 1901,

Alexander Agassiz Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (December 17, 1835March 27, 1910), son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer. Biography Agassiz was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and immigrated t ...

, son of

, formally established a Geological Museum. In 1966, the Mineralogical Museum (formed separately) and the Geological Museum merged.

Collection

The museum's collection is the oldest University collection in the country. It was established by

Benjamin Waterhouse Benjamin Waterhouse (March 4, 1754 – October 2, 1846) was a physician, co-founder and professor of Harvard Medical School. He is most well known for being the first doctor to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States, which he carried ou ...

, co-founder of and professor at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

, in 1784. In 1805, the collection held 1,600 specimens. Today, the museum holds 400,000 specimens.

References

External links

Official website

Google Arts & Culture: Mineralogical and Geological Museum, Harvard University
{{authority control Harvard University museums Mineralogy museums Geology museums in the United States Natural history museums in Massachusetts Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts University museums in Massachusetts