Kingman Museum is a

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...

and

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

located at 175 Limit Street, on the grounds of

Leila Arboretum The Leila Arboretum is an arboretum and garden located at 928 West Michigan Avenue, Battle Creek, Michigan. The arboretum is 72 acres, and is open to the public. The Arboretum's collections include nearly 1,700 accessioned woody plants and abou ...

, in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Its mission is to promote an understanding and appreciation of the natural world, the universe, and human cultures. The museum's collections include several thousand artifacts, many of which are displayed in permanent and temporary exhibitions. The vast majority of the collection, however, is in storage. In 2007 the museum received a grant from the

Institute of Museum and Library Services The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is an independent agency of the United States federal government established in 1996. It is the main source of federal support for libraries and museums within the United States, having the mis ...

to physically inventory and catalog every item in its collection, scheduled for completion in August 2009. Some of the museum's highlights include its

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fos ...

and

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

specimens, animal

taxidermy Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proc ...

mounts, a preserved human

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sperm ...

and

fetus A fetus or foetus (; plural fetuses, feti, foetuses, or foeti) is the unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Following embryonic development the fetal stage of development takes place. In human prenatal development, fetal develo ...

exhibit, and Native American artifacts. The museum also has numerous rare items in its collection, including two specimens of the critically-endangered

imperial woodpecker The imperial woodpecker (''Campephilus imperialis'') is a woodpecker species endemic to Mexico. If it is not extinct, it is the world's largest woodpecker species, at long. Researchers have discovered that the imperial woodpecker has slow cli ...

(''Campephilus imperialis''). Only 120 museum specimens of the bird are known to exist in the world. Since there are no known photographs or recordings of a living imperial woodpecker, these specimens are the only records

ornithologists __NOTOC__ This is a list of ornithologists who have articles, in alphabetical order by surname. See also :Ornithologists. A * John Abbot – US * Clinton Gilbert Abbott – US * William Louis Abbott – US * Joseph H. Acklen – US *Humayun Ab ...

have to study and understand the species. In 2008 Kingman Museum added a

Digistar 3 Evans & Sutherland is a pioneering American computer firm in the computer graphics field. Its current products are used in digital projection environments like planetariums. Its simulation business, which it sold to Rockwell Collins, sold product ...

fulldome Fulldome refers to immersive dome-based video display environments. The dome, horizontal or tilted, is filled with real-time (interactive) or pre-rendered (linear) computer animations, live capture images, or composited environments. Although t ...

projector system to its planetarium. It is one of only 61 installations worldwide and the only one in southwest Michigan. Kingman is a member museum of the

Association of Science-Technology Centers The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) is a non-profit, global organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States, that provides a collective voice, professional support, and programming opportunities for science c ...

and participates in the membership passport program.

References

External links

Official Website
{{authority control 1934 establishments in Michigan Association of Science-Technology Centers member institutions Battle Creek, Michigan History museums in Michigan Museums established in 1934 Museums in Calhoun County, Michigan Natural history of Michigan Natural history museums in Michigan Paleontology in Michigan Planetaria in the United States