Experience the Museum's most iconic specimens.
The Museum's most iconic attractions and visitor favorites—including Balto, Dunkleosteus (Dunk), Haplocanthosaurus (Happy), Lucy, and the Moon rock—are now featured in a stunning Visitor Hall.
Soon, this community-centered space will not only serve as a showcase for these Museum icons, but also as a trailhead inviting you to explore the new wings opening in December 2024. Admission to the Visitor Hall is always free.
Explore extraordinary specimens and iconic discoveries—all with deep ties to our region.
Douglas McCreery and Dr. Laurie McCreery Timeline of the Earth
This scaled timeline sets the stage for your Museum experience, with medallions marking geological and biological events, milestones, and time periods in the history of the Earth. Every inch of the timeline represents 1 million years, allowing you to walk from the planet’s origins 4.6 billion years ago to the emergence of Homo sapiens 300,000 years ago, before ending your journey in the present day.
Moon Rock
Collected by astronauts Alan Bean and Charles Conrad during the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, the Moon rock is on long-term loan from NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Primarily composed of basalt, the 253-gram rock also contains small grains of the minerals feldspar and pyroxene. Its exhibit features a carefully controlled environment, with a sealed chamber filled with nitrogen to protect the rock from reacting with the Earth’s atmosphere.
Specimens like this one help us understand the natural history of the Moon and Earth—and illustrate humanity's remarkable efforts to explore our planet and beyond.
Gems
This dazzling exhibit features more than 130 specimens from the Museum’s collection of gems and minerals, displaying the fascinating and beautiful products of the complex processes that shaped our planet. The diverse specimens on display include gemstones from around the world, such as a jade necklace, Mississippi River pearls, opals, and naturally colored diamonds.
Many of the specimens in this exhibit were originally owned and collected by Jeptha Homer Wade II, grandson of Jeptha Homer Wade I, the noted Cleveland industrialist and benefactor. In addition to providing rich opportunities for non-destructive research and teaching, the collection is an important record of Earth’s geologic history—and illustrates the significant role of local citizens in shaping the Museum’s legacy.
“Happy,” or Haplocanthosaurus delfsi
This plant-eating, long-necked dinosaur walked the Earth during the Jurassic Period, roughly 150 million years ago. Happy’s fossils were discovered in Colorado in 1954, when the Museum sent college student Edwin Delfs and three high school students on a mission to find a dinosaur. Not only did the team find one, but Happy was also the first of its kind ever discovered—making it the holotype of its species. Happy remains the only known adult specimen of its kind that is complete enough to display in its entirety.
Sponsored by Pam and Don Washkewicz
“Dunk,” or Dunkleosteus terrelli
Dunkleosteus terrelli was a giant armored fish that lived during the Late Devonian Period (~359 million years ago), when Ohio was covered by a tropical sea. Up to 20 feet in length and weighing more than 1 ton, this apex predator was capable of chomping on prehistoric sharks! Dunkleosteus had a massive skull made up of thick bony plates and two sets of fang-like protrusions near the front of its powerful, self-sharpening jawbones. In 2020, the Ohio General Assembly passed a bill declaring Dunkleosteus terrelli the official state fossil fish.
Sponsored by Tammy and Dennis Matecun
Bald Eagle
This captivating model of a bald eagle serves as a reminder of the role the Museum has played in the protection of native Ohio species. In the mid-1970s, the Museum pioneered a bald eagle captive-breeding program led by former Chief Wildlife Officer and current Museum Ambassador Emeritus Harvey Webster and Wildlife Specialist Carl Lutzmann. Revolutionary for its time, the program provided a model for similar initiatives around the country and proved that it was possible to restore populations of endangered species through captive breeding and release. Today, bald eagles—once a threatened species—are flourishing in Ohio and across the United States.
Balto
Balto captured global attention in 1925 when he led a 13-dog team on the final leg of a 674-mile dogsled relay. Their mission: to deliver lifesaving medicine to Nome, Alaska, during an outbreak of diphtheria. After the lifesaving journey was completed, Balto and several of his teammates were given a new home in Cleveland thanks to the generosity of local citizens. Nearly 100 years after Balto’s rise to fame, the sled dog’s story continues. In 2023, Balto’s DNA contributed to studies published in the journal Science.
Sponsored by The Milton and Tamar Maltz Family Foundation
“Lucy,” or Australopithecus afarensis
The fossils of Lucy, or Australopithecus afarensis, were discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 by a team of scientists led by Dr. Donald Johanson, a paleoanthropologist and the Museum’s former Curator of Physical Anthropology. Dr. Johanson and his team found about 40% of Lucy’s skeleton and later determined her fossils to be approximately 3.2 million years old. At the time, this made Lucy both the oldest and most complete hominin ever found.
Lucy’s discovery contributed significantly to our understanding of human origins, and she remains an important benchmark for comparison with new discoveries. Lucy’s exhibit features a lifelike reproduction created by the renowned paleo artist John Gurche. This reconstruction offers both a scientific and artistic interpretation of how Lucy may have appeared in life.
Sponsored by Robert J. and Linnet E. Fritz
Moths and Butterflies
This exhibit features lifelike models and images of moths and butterflies representing specimens in the Museum’s collection. These specimens are a critical record of the region’s moth and butterfly species and how their populations have changed. The collection continues to inform research today—providing valuable opportunities for researchers to model changes in Ohio’s populations over time.
Sponsored by Julie A. Clayman, MD
