Founded in 1858 as the Cabinet of Natural History to house specimens gathered by Iowa’s state surveys, the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History grew from early geology collections into one of the university’s oldest museums. After periods of expansion under curators including Samuel Calvin and Charles Cleveland Nutting, it moved into what became Macbride Hall and developed major research and exhibit collections in natural history, archaeology, and ethnography. Efforts to close it in 1965 were stopped by public protest, and later renewal broadened its public mission. Its exhibits, large collections, and continued fieldwork have made it both a teaching museum and a research center.