Last updated: 3/24/2023
Gainesville, Florida
Street Address
University of Florida1659 Dickinson Hall--Museum Road & Newell DriveGainesville, FL 32611
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 117800Gainesville, FL 32611-7800
phone: 352-392-1721
fax: 352-392-8783
e-mail: museuminfo@flmnh.ufl.edu
web: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/

Hours

Monday - Friday
8 AM - 5 PM

Admissions

Free

Staff

Douglas S. Jones
phone: 352-273-1902
Elise LeCompte
phone: 352-273-1925
Sarah Fazenbaker
phone: 352-273-1913
Beverly Sensbach
phone: 352-273-1900
Griffin Sheehy
phone: 352-273-1901
Brittany Snipes
phone:
Alberto Lopez Torres
phone:
Radha Krueger
phone:
Rebecca Burton
phone:
Stacey Crandall
phone:
Description

The Florida Museum is Florida's state museum of natural history. The museum's two main facilities are located in Gainesville, FL on the University of Florida campus.

Powell Hall, the education and exhibition center, is home to the permanent and traveling exhibit programs, adult and children's classes, group tours and special events. Visitors can enjoy hundreds of butterflies, witness a South Florida Calusa Indian welcoming ceremony, experience a life-sized limestone cave and see a mammoth and mastodon from the last Ice Age. More than 200,000 people visited the museum in 2008.

Dickinson Hall houses the majority of the Museum's research activities and vast collections containing more than 40 million specimens and artifacts.

Mission

The State's official natural history museum dedicated to understanding, preserving and interpreting biological diversity and cultural heritage.

History

Formerly named the Florida State Museum, established by the legislature in 1917 as the official state museum of natural history.

Artifact Collections

The Museum's Ethnographic and Archaeological collections contain approximately 20 million artifacts.

Research Collections

Anthropology: 8.8 million. It is the world's largest collection of Spanish Colonial artifacts and prehistoric Florida artifacts. Plants: 470,000. This collection leads the state in plant identification. Mollusks: 3 million. This is the eigth-largest U.S. collection. Butterflies and Moths: 1 million. This is the world's third-largest collection. Fish: 2.3 million. This is the fourth-largest U.S. collection. Reptiles and Amphibians: 190,000. This is the eigth-largest U.S. collection. Birds: 73,000. This is the world's third-largest sound recording collection and the fifth-largest skeleton collection. Mammals: 34,000. This is the world's second-largest marine mammal collection. Plant Fossils: 250,000. This collection leads the international research of flowering plant origins. Invertebrate Fossils: 3.75 million. This is the world's largest Florida collection and the fifth-largest North American Cenozoic collection. Vertebrate Fossils: 700,000. This is the fifth-largest U.S. collection. Total specimens and artifacts combined: 40+ million.

Educational Programs

Marvelous Explorations through Science and Stories, operated out of the museum, educates more than 850 children through science and literature-based activities in Head Start classrooms. About 4,500 students participated in docent-led tours during 2002-2003. Science and Engineering Experiences for Knowledge educated 60 students through an after-school program, and received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation. Other educational activities include an Animal Fair, Sensational Science, Buchholtz BioTrek afternoons and Science Sunday lectures.

Governance

University

Publications

Annual Reports, published annually. Natural History Magazine inserts, published monthly for members only. Contact the museum front desk to receive a copy.

Exhibitions
Museum Events
DISCLAIMER
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MUSEUM CONFERENCES

Museum Trustee Association Spring Forum 2024

April 10 - 14, 2024

Atlanta, Georgia

Texas Association of Museums 2024 Lubock Annual Conference

April 14 - 17, 2024

Lubbock, Texas

2024 Colorado-Wyoming ANNUAL MEETING

May 1 - 4, 2024

Worland, Wyoming

West Virginia Association of Museums 2024 Conference

June 6 - 8, 2024

Shepherdstown, West Virginia

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