The Museum traces its roots back to a two-room wooden structure on Public Square that served as a meeting place for 26 young men interested in the natural sciences. Because the mounted birds and mammals occupied every corner of the building, it became known as the “Ark.” The young men are called the “Arkites”
1920 Museum of Natural History is formally incorporated on December 13. Trustees appoint Paul Marshall Rea, who was very prominent in museum circles, as Museum Director.
1921 Museum establishes Library and Department of Education.
1922 Museum’s first exhibition of animal heads, hides, shells, stalactites, exotic birds and butterflies opens to the public in the newly renovated Hanna Mansion on Euclid Avenue, then referred to as “Millionaire Row.” Museum establishes Departments of Preparation and Geology. Donations include collections of Ohio birds and mammals; insects, other birds, minerals, fossils and artwork.
1923 The schooner Blossom, led by George Finlay Simmons, departs on an expedition to the South Atlantic islands and collects 12,000 bird specimens for the new institution. Museum establishes the Department of Ornithology (later the Department of Vertebrate Zoology).
1924 Jeptha H. Wade II gave the Museum the greater part of his collection of gems and semi-precious stones, appraised as one of the top six gem collections in the United States. The same year the Museum received the Holden Mineral Collection.
1927 The Fayette Brown family, father of Barbara and grandfather of Harvey Webster, gave the Museum the Harvey H. Brown house, which adjoined the Hanna House on the east. Clevelanders raise $2,000 to bring Balto and members of his dog sled team to the city for a hero’s parade through Public Square, and to live out their lives in dignity at the Brookside Zoo. Balto lead the last team of sled dogs through blinding snow, hurricane-force winds and temperatures below zero carrying antitoxin serum to the diphtheria-stricken town of Nome, Alaska. Nearly 20 relay teams participate.
1928 Museum purchases the Johnstown Mastodon, found in 1926, and installs first nature trail in North Chagrin Reservation. Trustees appoint Harold L. Madison as acting as Museum Director.
1930 White-Fuller expedition begins a three-month safari in Kenya; collects 139 large mammals of 30 different species, 100 small mammals and 600 birds. Museum establishes the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio, with 100 acres of land donated by trustee Ben Bole and Roberta Holden Bole.
1931 Museum-sponsors a “Trailside Museum” on the North Chagrin Reservation. Board appoints Harold L. Madison as Museum Director.
1932 Scientists B.P. Bole, Jr., and John W. Aldrich lead expedition to Panama to collect bird specimens.
1933 Balto dies. Museum mounts the heroic dog.
1936 Museum installs The Hanna Star Dome, Ohio’s first planetarium.
1937 The Museum publishes its first book, The Composition and Dynamics of a Beech-Maple Climax Community, by naturalist A.B. Williams.
1938 Museum publishes Explorer Magazine until 1952 and resumes again in 1961.
1939 Trustees appoint a Board of Managers to handle day-to-day functions of the Museum. The managers were John Aldrich, Benjamin P. Bole, Jr., Arthur Fuller and Arthur Williams.
1940 The Board authorizes the formation of The Women’s Committee as a fund-raising arm for the Museum’s general operations. Kirtland Society also began this year. Museum acquires responsibility of the Brookside Zoo and manages it until 1957.
1942 Museum receives the Soellner Collection of 40,000 seashells from around the world and Towson Meteorite collection. Dr. David Dunkle discovers the Nanotyrannus lancensis, originally named Gorgosaurus, in Montana.
1946 Board appoints Kenneth Disher as Museum Director
1947 John Sherwin donates rare double elephant folio of Audubon’s Birds of America to the Museum.
1948 Trustees appoint a Board of Managers to handle day-to-day functions of the Museum. The managers were William E. Scheele, Harold Wallin and Arthur Williams.
1949 Trustees appoint William E. Scheele as Museum Director.
1951 Western Reserve University, later named Case Western Reserve University, donates the non-human osteological material from the Hamman-Todd collection to the Museum. Holden Arboretum becomes an independent corporation.
1953 City of Cleveland leases l1 ½ acres in Wade Park and to the Museum.
1954 Museum expedition to Canon City, Colorado, unearths a 70-foot-long dinosaur skeleton named Haplocanthosaurus delfsi in honor of Edwin Delfs, expedition field leader. Museum opens Cleveland Aquarium in Gordon Park on Labor Day.
1956 Museum acquires first natural areas properties, land on Kelley’s Island and Fern Lake Bog.
1957 Cleveland Metroparks takes over the management of Brookside Zoo, later renamed the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.
1958 The Museum moves to its new and present location at 1 Wade Oval Drive in University Circle. The Haplocanthosaurus delfsi dinosaur is its first new major attraction.
1959 The Museum builds the Ralph Mueller Planetarium and accepts the 10½ inch Warner and Swasey telescope, built in 1899, from Western Reserve University.
1961 The Jared P. Kirtland Hall of Prehistoric Life opens, showcasing the gigantic dinosaur Haplocanthosaurus delfsi. The Museum opens the Ralph Mueller Observatory, receives the Zahrobsky Insect Collection and resumes publication of The Explorer magazine.
1963 Museum’s name temporarily changes to “Museum of Natural Science,” and charges first admission fee of 50 cents for adults.
1964 Museum acquires a 50-acre parcel of Mentor Marsh wetlands.
1965 Cleveland Shale deposits with Devonian fossil fish are recovered during Interstate 71 construction.
1967 Museum establishes the Departments of Paleontology and Archaeology and begins publishing Kirtlandia, its scientific journal.
1968 The Museum installs the new Stegosaurus sculpture, nicknamed “Steggie,” created by Louis P. Jonas and accepts donation of Medina Sanctuary.
1970 Trustees re-adopt the name “Cleveland Museum of Natural History” in time for the Museum’s 50th anniversary. Museum opens the Ralph Perkins II Memorial Woods Garden, which houses rehabilitated Ohio birds and mammals.
1971 The Perkins Wildlife Center begins its American Bald Eagle-breeding program.
1972 Museum completes major renovation. The additions are Sears Hall of Man, Fawick Gallery, the Thelma and Kent Smith Environmental Courtyard, the Harold T. Clark Library, Murch Auditorium and laboratories. Trustees appoint Glenn Kitson as acting Museum Director.
1973 Trustees appoint Dr. Harold D. Mahan as Museum Director.
1974 Dr. Donald Johansen, then Curator of Physical Anthropology, discovers a partial skeleton of a more than 3 million years old female in Ethiopia. He nicknamed her “Lucy.” In 1997, scientists prove that the fossils were a new hominid species described as Australopithecus afarensis. Museum establishes the Natural History Art Society.
1975 Museum acquires its first freeze-drying unit for the preservation of specimens.
1976 The Museum acquires the Ringler dugout, a perfectly preserved canoe made by ancient Ohio inhabitants, near Ashland, Ohio.
1978 The Nature in the City education outreach program begins as well as the Trout Club.
1979 Kirtlandia Society begins Adopt-A-Student Program. Micromineral Club and Photographic Society start.
1980 The Museum’s first traveling exhibit, “Confiscated,” promotes international conservation of wildlife and contains government seized illegal animal furs and other items. Paleobotany Department is established.
1981 New exhibits open on Ohio ecology.
1982 Ralph Pfingsten quadruples the Museum’s herpetology collection by donating 10,000 salamanders. Museum establishes an Archives Department. Museum acquires the Grand River Terraces property. Fossil Society and Thoreau Society begin.
1983 Linnaean Council and Society of Nature Artists begins.
1984 Director of Wildlife Center Harvey Webster hatches the first bald eagle in captivity. Museum begins partnership with the National Museum of Costa Rica.
1985 Board appoints Laurence G. Isard acting Museum Director.
1986 Museum buries a time capsule as part of the “Halley’s Comet” educational project and establishes the Science Resource Center. Cleveland Aquarium closes.
1987 Museum receives the Frank A. Myers Gem Collection. Board appoints Dr. J. Mary Taylor as Museum Director, the first female director of a major natural history museum.
1988 Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Dr. Michael William, now deceased, and fellow vertebrate paleontologists Dr. Robert Bakker and Dr. Philip Currie reclassify the Museum’s Gorgosaurus as a new genus of tyrannosaurid, the Nanotyrannus lancensis.
1989 A new addition to the Museum includes storage space for collections and a cold room to preserve animal mounts. The sixth natural areas property is Koelliker Fen.
1990 In accordance with the highest standards of excellence, Museum earns accreditation from the American Association of Museums. The Museum also acquires the North Kingsville Sand Barrens property.
1991 The Archaeology Department investigates a Paleo Crossing site in Medina County to discover more about Ohio’s earliest inhabitants. It also acquires Cottonwood Hollow natural area.
1992 The Howard Smead Naturalist Center, the Museum’s first permanent children’s discovery center, opens.
1994 The David S. Ingalls, Jr. Wing is built. It houses the Museum Store, Kahn Hall for temporary exhibits, offices, labs and storage areas. Museum also established the David S. Ingalls Award of Excellence and presents it to Stephen J. Gould.
1995 Museum celebrates its 75th anniversary with a year of activities, including the "Cleveland Before Cleaveland" exhibition.
1996 Dr. Shya Chitaley, Curator of Paleobotany, and Dr. Kathleen Pigg, describe and name a new genus and species of ancient club moss (Clevelandodendron ohioensis) from the Cleveland Shale. Trustees appoint Dr. James E. King as Museum Director. Museum launches a new web site.
1997 Museum opens PLANET e, the new Reinberger Hall of Earth and Planetary Exploration, the first permanent exhibition in a natural history museum to integrate geology and astronomy. Admissions area of main lobby undergoes a major renovation. A new and improved “Steggie” sculpture was installed.
1998 The Jeptha H.Wade II Gallery of Gems & Jewels opens. Museum members Richard and Jalane Davidson donate an extensive collection of cabochons, mineral eggs, and other stones and BP America donates a pre-Colombian ceramics collection.
1999 Dr. Bruce Latimer, Curator of Physical Anthropology, is a member of an international team who publish an article in the journal Science about a new hominid species, Australopithecus garhi, which they discovered at Bouri on the Middle Awash River in Ethiopia.
2000 Museum receives re-accreditation from the American Association of Museums.
2001 Museum completes reconstruction of a Coelophysis dinosaur, a Late Triassic theropod, for display and acquires ancient mastodon unearthed near Salem, Ohio. Trustees appoint Dr. Bruce Latimer as Museum Director.
2002 Museum opens the newly constructed Nathan and Fannye Shafran Planetarium and Reinberger Astronomy Hall and Early Childhood Learning Center, along with newly renovated Ralph Perkins II Memorial Wildlife Center and Woods Garden and Smead Discovery Center.
2003 Museum establishes a Center for Conservation & Biodiversity, which includes the Natural Areas Program, Conservation Outreach Program and the Ohio Conservation Alliance.
2004 Curator of Physical Anthropology Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie and his scientific team working in the Middle Awash valley of the Afar Region in Ethiopia have found dental evidence that Ardipithecus kadabba was the earliest species of its genus, dating between 5.54 and 5.77 million years ago. Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology Dr. Joe Hannibal and colleagues discover a new species of pill millipedes, Amynilspes fatimae, in the Upper Carboniferous deposits of Montceau-les Mines, France. Museum dedicates outdoor exedra and sundial, completing the final plans for the Shafran Planetarium.
2005 Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, head of a scientific team working in Korsi-Dora in the vicinity of Mille town located in the Northern Afar Region, along with his colleagues, have found a partial fossil skeleton of a hominid that is probably around 3.8 to 4 million years old, based on associated animal remains. Drs. Yohannes Haile-Selassie and Bruce Latimer lead a team to Ethiopia and discover 12 early hominid fossil specimens from four localities in Afar Region. Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Dr. Michael Ryan describes and names a new horned dinosaur species, Centrosaurus brinkmani, who lived about 76 million years in the badlands of Alberta, Canada.
2006 The Museum educates a total of 5 million students over the last 84 years by mid-February of this year. Natural Areas Program now has more than 48 preserves totaling over 3,200 acres. Museum launches a new and more comprehensive web site. Health Space Cleveland merges with the Museum.
2007 Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Dr. Michael Ryan describes and names a new horned dinosaur species, Albertaceratops nesmoi, who lived about 78 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now southernmost Alberta, Canada. Blue Planet Cafe opens inside Museum. EcoCity Cleveland merges with the Museum, and the GreenCityBlueLake Institute forms as a result.
2008 “RACE: Are We So Different?” exhibit explores topic of Race in America. Museum acquires a new life-sized cast of T. rex skeleton.
2009The Museum honors companies with demonstrated excellence in workplace wellness with the Wellness@Work Awards. Museum scientists Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie and Dr. Linda Spurlock are part of an international team who discover and publish an article in the journal Science about a new 4.4 million-year-old hominid species, Ardipithecus ramidus.
2010Trustees appoint Evalyn Gates, Ph.D. as Museum Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer. Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Dr. Michael Ryan describes and names a new horned dinosaur species, Medusaceratops lokii, who lived nearly 78 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now Montana. Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie and his colleagues publish findings about "Kadanuumuu," a 3.6 million-year-old partial skeleton found in Ethiopia that is 400,000 years older than the famous "Lucy" skeleton and suggests that advanced human-like, upright walking occurred much earlier than previously thought.