| Museum of Science, Boston | |
| Mapframe: | yes |
| Mapframe-Zoom: | 13 |
| Coordinates: | 42.3675°N -71.0711°W |
| Established: | 1830 |
| Location: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Type: | Science museum Indoor zoo |
| Accreditation: | AAM, ASTC, AZA |
| Visitors: | 1.53 million (2016)[1] |
| Director: | Tim Ritchie |
| Parking: | Dedicated parking garage (fee) |
The Museum of Science (MoS) is a nature and science museum and indoor zoological establishment located in Science Park, a plot of land in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, spanning the Charles River. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, the museum features a number of live and interactive presentations throughout the building each day, along with scheduled film showings at the Charles Hayden Planetarium and the Mugar Omni Theater (New England’s only domed IMAX theater).
The Museum is a member of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) (and President Tim Ritchie serves as Chair of the ASTC Board of Directors) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Additionally, the Museum of Science is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), being home to over 100 animals.
The museum began as the Boston Society of Natural History in 1830, founded by a collection of men who wished to share scientific interests. Their first meeting was held on February 9, 1830 with seven original members in attendance: Walter Channing, Benjamin D. Greene, George Hayward, John Ware, Edward Brooks, Amos Binney, and George B. Emerson. It was more commonly called the Boston Museum of Natural History in the 19th century, and this name occurs frequently in the literature. In 1862, after the society had gone through several temporary facilities, a building was constructed in the Back Bay area of the city and dubbed the New England Museum of Natural History. The museum was located next to the original Rogers Building of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and both neoclassical structures were designed by William G. Preston. The original MIT building was demolished in 1939, but the Natural History Museum building survives today, as a home furnishings showcase.
A great deal of scientific work was done by the society, especially around geology, and the results of this work can be found in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History which are now freely available online. A library and children's rooms were added to the museum around 1900. It was renamed the Museum of Science in 1939, under the directorship of Henry Bradford Washburn, Jr., a renowned American mountaineer.[2]
The Boston Museum of Natural History of 1830/1864–1945 should not be confused with the private Warren Museum of Natural History (1858–1906, formerly on Chestnut Street in Boston). The contents of the latter collection, including the first intact mastodon, were relocated to the American Museum of Natural History of New York City in 1906.
Museum Then and Now, an exhibit of artifacts from the early years of the society, is located near the second floor Blue Wing entrance to the Theater of Electricity in today's museum.
After World War II, the old Museum of Science building was sold, and the museum was relocated, again under the name Boston Museum of Science. Under the leadership of Bradford Washburn, the society negotiated with the Metropolitan District Commission for a 99-year lease of the land on the Charles River Dam Bridge, now known as Science Park. The museum pays $1 a year to the state for use of the land. Construction and development began in 1948, and the museum opened in 1951, arguably the first all-encompassing science museum in the country.
In these first few years, the museum developed a traveling planetarium, a version of which is still brought to many elementary schools in the Greater Boston area every year. They also obtained during these early years "Spooky", a great horned owl who became a symbol or mascot of the museum; he lived to age 38, the longest any great horned owl is known to have lived. Today, a number of other taxidermed specimens remain on display, teaching children about the animals of New England and of the world.
The Science Park/West End MBTA infill station was opened in August 1955, allowing easier access to the museum by public transportation. The Charles Hayden Planetarium was opened in 1958.
Many more expansions continued into the 1970s and 1980s. In 1999, The Computer Museum in Boston closed and became part of the Museum of Science, integrating some of its educational displays, although most of the historical artifacts were moved to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.[3]
A major renovation and expansion took place during 2005 and 2006. In 2010, the Charles Hayden Planetarium was closed for renovation, and has since reopened.[4]
The main entrance to the museum straddles the border between the cities of Boston and Cambridge, and the boundary is indicated by a marker embedded in the floor inside the museum. In 2013, the Museum of Science was the venue for the first joint session of the Boston and Cambridge city councils, to discuss policy measures to improve retention of talented recent university graduates in the area.[5]
Starting in 2013, the Museum of Science undertook a major renovation to upgrade its physical structure, and to develop new educational content. A $250 million campaign upgraded nearly half of the exhibit halls from 2012, and opened three new major exhibits: the Hall of Human Life, the Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River, and What Is Technology?[6] The Hall of Human Life opened in November 2013 in the newly expanded Level 2 of the Green Wing, and has a focus on human biology.[7] The audio kinetic sculpture Archimedean Excogitation was moved to the atrium to make way for a new exhibit in the lower lobby called the Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River. This exhibit opened in 2016, creating a new entry to the museum with better views of the Charles River and Boston-Cambridge skyline.[8]
On October 18, 2016 former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg revealed that his foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, would donate $50 million to the museum, the largest gift in the institution's 186-year history.[9]
In 2024, the museum started construction of a Public Science Common, to be located where the Cahners Auditorium previously existed. This is a new, flexible meeting space enclosed in glass, and replaces an earlier windowless physical volume which had turned a blank wall to the Charles River. The new space will serve as a central hub for three Centers for Public Science Learning -- the Center for Life Sciences, the Center for the Environment, and the Center for Space Sciences. Lead funding is by Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the project is planned for completion in 2026.[10]
In front of the museum, a memorial to Leonard Nimoy, the television and movie actor who grew up nearby in the West End of Boston, is planned for installation. The monumental sculpture will be a larger-than-life 20feet representation of a hand displaying Nimoy's iconic "live long and prosper" gesture. Co-sponsored by Nimoy's family, the project is at least 75% funded .[11] [12]
Green Wing
Red Wing
Miscellaneous
The museum offers many free live presentations to visitors, including hands-on demonstrations and live animal show-and-tell sessions.[18] The museum houses over 100 live animals, and is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Live animals shown have included tarantulas, hissing cockroaches, and axolotls, as well as better-known birds and furry mammals, many of which the museum gained after they were surrendered, confiscated, rescued, or rehabilitated.
The MoS has extensive educational programs from pre-school up through adult programming, including lecture series, concerts, films, workshops, and public policy discussions.
Special "overnight" programs invite students in grades 1–7, as well as Scout groups, to spend a night at the museum.
Engineering Design Workshop is an exhibit on the first level in the Blue Wing that sees about 200–800 visitors a day. It includes various different design challenges and other more one-on-one "cart activities" for visitors. The design center includes about a dozen activities for visitors to attempt while learning about the engineering process run twice a day from 10am-12pm and from 2pm–4pm during the school year, and also 4:30pm–6:30pm during the summer.[19] The cart activities include robotics and circuitry and are more meant for teaching visitors about new technology. All activities also include a magnet for visitors who attempted the activities.
Although the history artifacts of The Computer Museum (TCM) were moved from Boston to Silicon Valley to become the core of the current Computer History Museum, some former TCM educational exhibits and objects were transferred to the Boston Museum of Science where two new computing and technology exhibits were created. The Computing Revolution, an exhibit no longer on display at the Museum of Science, related the history of computing through a variety of hands-on interactive exhibits. Cahners ComputerPlace, previously located in the Blue Wing, Level 1, housed displays ranging from educational video games to an interactive AIBO ERS-7 robot. The first integrated quantum computing system, developed by MOS Director of Strategic Projects Carol Lynn Albert in collaboration with IBM, is on display as part of MOS's computing exhibits.