Museum of Comparative Zoology

Harvard MCZ's collections consist of some 21 million specimens, of which several thousand are on rotating display at the public museum.

Past exhibits have included a fossil sand dollar found by Charles Darwin in 1834, Captain James Cook's mamo, and two pheasants that once belonged to George Washington, now on loan to Mount Vernon in Virginia.

[2] Agassiz designed the collection to illustrate the variety and comparative relationships of animal life.

The two-story Great Mammal Hall was renovated in 2009 in celebration of the 150th anniversary of founding of the museum.

Changing exhibitions in the Harvard Museum of Natural History have included "Evolution" (2008); "The Language of Color" (2008 to 2013); "Arthropods: Creatures that Rule" (2006); "New England Forests" (2011); and "Mollusks: Shelled Masters of the Marine Realm" (2012).