The

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

is home to a number of museums. Located on the university's Central Campus are

University of Michigan Museum of Natural History A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

; the

University of Michigan Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is one of the largest university art museums in the United States, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with . Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alu ...

; the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology; Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry of the School of Dentistry. Adjacent to the Central Campus is the

Nichols Arboretum Nichols Arboretum, locally known as the Arb, is an arboretum on the campus of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Arb is located adjacent to the Huron River, and features over 400 species, including 110 species of trees, in a ...

and Matthaei Botanical Gardens. Located on the university's North Campus is the Warren Robbins Gallery and Slusser Gallery of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Central Campus

University of Michigan Museum of Natural History

The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, formerly known as the Exhibit Museum of Natural History, began in the mid-19th century and expanded greatly with the donation of 60,000 specimens by

Joseph Beal Steere Joseph Beal Steere (9 February 1842 – 7 December 1940) was an American ornithologist. Life and career Steere was born in Rollin, Michigan, the son of William Millhouse and Elizabeth Cleghorn (Beal) Steere. He received a B.A. from the Univer ...

, a U-M alumnus, in the 1870s. The museum holds the largest display of dinosaur specimens in Michigan, as well as specimens of the

state fossil Most states in the US have designated a state fossil, many during the 1980s. It is common to designate a fossilized species, rather than a single specimen or a category of fossils. State fossils are distinct from other state emblems like state d ...

, the

mastodon A mastodon, from Ancient Greek μαστός (''mastós''), meaning "breast", and ὀδούς (''odoús'') "tooth", is a member of the genus ''Mammut'' (German for 'mammoth'), which was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to ...

(the only such display in the world containing adult male and female specimens: the Buesching and Owosso mastodons). The museum was formerly housed in the Alexander G. Ruthven Museums Building and was recently moved into the new Biological Sciences Building. The Museum of Natural History includes a

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 planetariums is ...

and exhibits on

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

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

in Michigan and beyond, Michigan wildlife, Native American culture and anthropology. The exhibit displays include material borrowed from the other U-M museums, which are all different departmental units.

Museum of Anthropology

The Museum of Anthropology is a research, teaching, and curation unit of the College of Literature, Science and Arts for anthropological and archaeological collections from around the world. The collections support undergraduate and graduate education, and a portion are displayed in the U-M Museum of Natural History. The Museum of Anthropology formally started in 1922. The Museum of Anthropology is open to researchers, classes and members of the public by appointment.

Museum of Paleontology

The Museum of Paleontology (UMMP) is a research museum illuminating the history and meaning of life through geological time. The Museum of Paleontology collections are located at the Research Museum Center and other departmental offices are in the Biological Sciences Building (where the Museum of Natural History is located). The Museum of Paleontology is open to researchers by appointment only.

Museum of Zoology

The Museum of Zoology (UMMZ), whose collection includes over 15 million specimens representing all orders of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

s and

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as eac ...

s, and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s, and over 80% of orders of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

and

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

Kelsey Museum of Archaeology

Another museum located on Central Campus is the Kelsey Museum of Archeology, which has a collection of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Middle Eastern artifacts. Between 1972 and 1974, the museum was involved in the excavation of the

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

Dibsi Faraj Dibsi Faraj is an archaeological site on the right bank of the Euphrates in Aleppo Governorate (Syria). The site was excavated as part of a larger international effort coordinated by UNESCO to excavate as many archaeological sites as possible in ...

in northern

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. The Kelsey Museum re-opened November 1, 2009 after a renovation and expansion.

University of Michigan Museum of Art

The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is a meeting place for the arts, bridging visual art and contemporary culture, scholarship and accessibility, tradition and innovation. The museum's collections include nearly 19,000 objects that span cultures, eras, and media and include European, American, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African art, as well as changing exhibits. The Museum of Art re-opened in 2009 after a three-year renovation and expansion. UMMA presents special exhibitions and diverse educational programs featuring the visual, performing, film and literary arts that contextualize the gallery experience.

Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry

Also on Central Campus and housed in the School of Dentistry building is the Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry. The collection contains over 15,000 objects pertaining to the history of the dental profession.

Nichols Arboretum

Nichols Arboretum is a 123-acre site adjacent to Central Campus. The entrance from campus is on Washington Heights near the University Hospital complex. The ceremonial entrance is on Geddes Road.

Medical and North Campuses

Detroit Observatory

The Detroit Observatory is adjacent to the

University Hospital A teaching hospital or university hospital is a hospital or medical center that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities a ...

complex. Containing two

telescopes A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

, it was the first

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and the second in

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

, and is the second oldest building remaining on campus. The

is also adjacent to the University Hospital complex.

Warren Robbins Gallery and Slusser Gallery

The Warren Robbins Gallery and Slusser Gallery are art exhibit galleries housed in the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design building on North Campus.

Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments

The Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments, located in the Earl V. Moore Building of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, houses over 2,500 pieces of historical and contemporary musical instruments from all over the world.

Off-campus

Matthaei Botanical Gardens

The Matthaei Botanical Gardens, is a 350-acre facility located on the eastern boundary of Ann Arbor, about 10 km from campus. It is another major collection of the university.

University of Michigan Herbarium

The University of Michigan Herbarium, a research and teaching collection, is located south of the main campus.

Horner-McLaughlin Woods

This 90 acre research natural area is managed by the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. It was donated to the University of Michigan by the Michigan Botanical Club in 1964 as a plant and wildflower sanctuary for scientific, educational and aesthetic purposes. Public parking and trail-head access is through the Raymond F. Goodrich Preserve, Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation.

Mud Lake Bog

This 260 acre research natural area is managed by the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. It is at the northern edge of Washtenaw County, Michigan, about 20 km from Ann Arbor. Access is restricted and granted through permission of the Gardens.

References

External links

Museums at the University of Michigan
{{University of Michigan, campus University of Michigan campus Natural history museums in Michigan Archaeological museums in Michigan

Arboreta in Michigan :{{Seealso, Botanical garden Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota ...

Planetaria in the United States University museums in Michigan Museums in Ann Arbor, Michigan Spier & Rohns buildings Medical museums in the United States