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I hadn't been to the MNH since the same 9th grade field trip that took me to the Botanic Garden. I have very fuzzy photos of the African Elephant and the Hope Diamond, but no other recollections of the visit. The museum was opened in 1910 and was one of the first of the Smithsonian complex to open to the public. In addition to the elephant and the Hope Diamond (both still there), the museum has the expected dinosaurs, early mammals and geology / archaeology that one would expect.
I can't believe that I didn't remember the Giant Ground Sloth. It was definitely the most impressive thing I saw this trip...way cooler than T. rex or the Hope Diamond. Giant Ground Sloths were huge, elephant sized animals that could rear up or walk on the ground and they have a lot of them at the museum. At least half of my pictures from the day were sloth-related in some way.
Karen being attacked by a Giant Sloth
Giant Sloth (left) and Saber Toothed Cat (right) faceoff - I embellished a bit
There is a great Insect Zoo upstairs and a butterfly / flower co-evolution exhibit. No one seemed as amused as Karen and I that the insect zoo is sponsored by Orkin.
Nature's Best Photography Exhibit has the best photos submitted from this year's competition in categories ranging from Animal Antics to Indigenous People. A Rare Encounter: The Hope and Wittelsbach-Graff Diamonds is a face off between two of the largest blue diamonds in the world. The museum is trying to determine if they were cut from the same original stone while the smaller, Wittelsbach-Graff diamond is on loan this year. We had to zip through Written In Bone: Forensics Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake but what we did see was very interactive and looked great for older kids. Links to all the exhibits are on the website: http://www.mnh.si.edu/.
Hope Diamond (out of its setting for this year only)
