Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is the oldest museum in Santa Barbara, founded in 1916. The museum is located in scenic Mission Canyon, immediately behind the Santa Barbara Mission. Set in a traditional southern California environment, the museum campus occupies 12 acres (49,000 m²) of beautiful oak woodland along Mission Creek. It is housed in a beautiful mission-style, Spanish Mediterranean complex of buildings considered one of the architectural gems of Santa Barbara.

Related Topics:
1916 - Santa Barbara Mission

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The museum is renowned for fine dioramas of birds, mammals, and southern California habitats, halls of marine life, geology, and Chumash Indian life, and an exquisite art gallery dedicated to antique natural history prints. It has extensive collections of over 3 million specimens and an active research program with particular strengths in marine biology, terrestrial vertebrates, insects, anthropology, geological mapping, and natural history art. The museum also has an excellent natural history library open to the public.

Related Topics:
Chumash - Marine biology - Terrestrial vertebrates - Insects - Anthropology

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Exhibits have included Butterflies Alive!, which let visitors experience over a thousand live butterflies in a sunny Mexican village plaza, and Celebration of Souls that featured the annual ?Dia de los Muertos? celebrations of Oaxaca, Mexico in beautiful photographs colorful artifacts.

Related Topics:
Butterflies - Dia de los Muertos - Oaxaca

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The museum?s Gladwin Planetarium was totally renovated in early 2005 and equipped with state of the art technology that transports visitors to distant planets, stars, and galaxies.

Related Topics:
2005 - Planets - Stars - Galaxies

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The Ty Warner Sea Center, located on Santa Barbara?s historic Stearns Wharf, is a major off-site facility owned and operated by the Museum of Natural History. Opened in April of 2005, the Sea Center offers an exciting and fun hands-on introduction to the mysteries of the Ocean. Among the many interactive exhibits of the Sea Center are a Tide Pool with waves rushing into it every 60 seconds, the Wet Deck featuring direct access to the water below, the Channel Theater, the Workshop, the Whale Karaoke station, and the plastinated dolphin.

Related Topics:
Ty Warner Sea Center - Stearns Wharf - 2005 - Ocean - Tide Pool

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