Best Things to Do: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Natural History Museum

The Los Angeles Natural History Museumis beloved by the city’s citizens. Built in 1913, the museum has been providing visitors with masterpieces of the natural world. With an impressive collection that has been delighting residents of Los Angeles for over a hundred years.

The museum is inside a wonderful Spanish Renaissance styled building in Exposition Park. The eastern entrance, part of the original building is one of Los Angeles’ most beautiful public spaces.

The Natural History Museum has two entrances. The main entrance at Exposition Blvd. and the original entrance in the Rose Garden.

The eastern entrance to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles over looks a rose garden and features a rotund with Corinthian marble columns crowned by a stain- glass dome and a coffered ceiling . At the center of the rotunda is a statue of the Three Graces, representing the muses of art, history and science.

The spectacular 14,000 square-foot Dinosaur Hall has 20 complete dinosaur skeletons and 300 fossils on display in full prehistoric wonder. A massive Triceratops confronts visitors at the Halls entrance. The popular T.Rex Trio includes three skeletons of a baby, juvenile and sub-adult T-Rex. The Hall features multimedia stations with hands on activities for minds eager to learn more.

Be sure to check out The Dino Lab, where paleontologist unearth and clean their latest discoveries. Watch as stuff member works on real fossils restoring and preparing specimens for research and display.

In the Age of Mammals Hall the evolutionary history and diversity of mammal life is traced. Skeletons of an American Mastodon, polar bears, walruses, zebras, elk, cheetah, bison, wolves and a Sumatran tiger detail the evolution of post dinosaur age animals.

More than 240 specimens, including skeletons of ocean mammals are suspended from the ceiling are on display.

Beautiful dioramas created in the 1920s fill the African and North American Diorama Halls with lions, giraffes and elephants in some of the finest recreations of animal habitats in any museum in the world. The habitats displayed range from desert to rainforest, polar to plains, with exquisite backdrops that help bring these magnificent animals to life.

A permanent display that details L.A.’s complicated and sometimes unlikely origin story. How people, place and opportunity help create Los Angeles. Artifacts and stories of many diverse people who over generations created the glamours city of Los Angeles.

In the Gem and Mineral Hall be prepared to be dazzled by more than 2,000 specimens of polished gemstones and mineral, and gold. The Gems and Minerals exhibits include a 4.5 billion year old meteorite. The largest exhibits in the world of natural gold and the largest gold nuggets ever found in California, the famous Mojave gold nugget can be seen.

The Discovery Center is a hands on for fun experience where you can dig for fossils at the Paleo Play Zone.

The center for the museum’s study of Los Angeles’ biodiversity project The Lab is a place where visitors can get up close to nature.

There’s bugs galore at the insect zoo, where you can study local insects and arthropods in the Spider Pavilion. Use a microscope or magnifying glasses for closer investigations. The insect Zoo gets everyone up close and personal with bugs and creepy crawlers.

The Natural History has a large 3.5 acre outdoor urban wildlife wonderland with walking paths perfect for exploring. The Nature Garden has native plants and insects that families can observe and a creek bed with water fall. A Meadow with California native plants, bee hotels and hummingbird feeders. And pond full of ducks, insects, dragonflies and fish. Visit the Pollinator Garden where pollinators feed on native plant

There are more than 600 artifacts and treasures from Ancient Americans on display in the Visible Vault exhibit. Archeological treasures from advanced civilizations like the Aztec, Maya and Inca. Enjoy a rare glimpse of rare and exquisite objects often hidden away in back storerooms of the museum.

Learn the mechanics of bird flight. Get an up close look at birds from around the world including hundreds of species from Southern California. Explore the Hall of Birds where eggs, nests and feathers provide a glimpse of diverse species.

The third largest Nature History Museum in the United States. Since it opened in 1913 the museum has expanded so it now is five times its original size. It’s collection includes over 16 million specimens and artifacts across 600 million years of earth’s history.

The Nature History Museum of Los Angeles is a great experience for kids with exhibits that fascinate covering a range of topics from cultural, geology, biology and natural history.