The Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum is a

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

housed at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(BYU) in Provo,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States.

Description

The museum is named for Monte Lafayette Bean, a self-made Seattle-based magnate who entirely funded and paid for the building's construction. He also donated many of his own animal trophies to the collection. The Bean Museum opened on March 28, 1978, and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It maintains collections of

vascular Vascular can refer to: * blood vessels, the vascular system in animals * vascular tissue Vascular tissue is a complex transporting tissue, formed of more than one cell type, found in vascular plants. The primary components of vascular tissue ...

and

non-vascular plant Non-vascular plants are plants without a vascular system consisting of xylem and phloem. Instead, they may possess simpler tissues that have specialized functions for the internal transport of water. Non-vascular plants include two distantly rel ...

s, and

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

and

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

animals. Before 1978, it was known as the BYU Life Sciences Museum and did not have its own building. The Bean Museum now houses the Liger Shasta who lived at the Hogle Zoo from when she was born on May 6, 1948, till when she died, on July 12, 1972. Admission to the three-story museum is free of charge and over 100,000 unique visitors come to see the over 2 million specimens of insects, plants, reptiles, fish, shells, and birds.

References

External links

*
M.L. Bean Museum records, MSS 1132
a
L. Tom Perry Special Collections

Wilmer W. Tanner papers, including the records regarding the creation of and the endowment for the museum, MSS 7361
a
L. Tom Perry Special Collections

Natural history museums in Utah University museums in Utah Brigham Young University buildings Museums in Provo, Utah Museums established in 1978 Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums 1978 establishments in Utah {{Utah-museum-stub