Exploration and Discovery: Treasures of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

David K. Skelly, the Frank R. Oastler Professor of Ecology, director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Thomas J. Near, associate professor in ecology and evolutionary biology; photography by Robert Lorenz

(Yale University Press)

Founded in 1866 with a gift from international financier George Peabody, the Peabody Museum of Natural History has for 150 years acquired, studied, protected, and displayed its ever-expanding collections. Among the museum’s 13,000,000 items are iconic fossils, ethnographic pieces, historical flora, and extinct species — a record of the history of Earth, its life, and its cultures. More than mere curios, these objects represent key cornerstones in our understanding of the natural world. Taken together, the Peabody’s collections illuminate advancements in knowledge over the past 200 years and reveal important connections between social change and the evolution of science.

This illustrated book highlights important objects from the museum’s 10 scientific disciplines: Yale’s first microscope, purchased in 1734; the New World’s first recorded meteorite from 1807; the dinosaur “that changed everything” in 1969; and the skull of a new monkey species discovered in 2012. Such treasures represent generations of seekers and thinkers at the Peabody, whose research and discoveries altered our understanding of Earth, its past, and our place in the natural world — a pursuit that continues to this day.

The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History is marking its 150^th anniversary with an exhibition that utilizes treasures from the museum’s collections. Read the story on YaleNews.