The Bell Museum of Natural History, the University of Minnesota’s natural history museum, began in 1872 as a state-mandated effort to collect and interpret Minnesota’s animal and plant life for research, teaching, and public education. Starting in a single room on the Minneapolis campus, it grew into a major institution shaped by Thomas Sadler Roberts and James Ford Bell, whose support helped create a 1940 museum known for its Minnesota habitat dioramas and conservation message. Since moving to a new building on the Saint Paul campus in 2018, the museum has combined public exhibits, a digital planetarium, and statewide outreach with research collections of more than 4 million specimens.

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia