Harvard Mineralogical Museum

It is one of the three research museums which collectively comprise the collection of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

[1] Harvard professor Louis Agassiz oversaw the construction of the University Museum building to house a museum of comparative zoology; the building was completed in 1859.

Its collections soon expanded beyond comparative zoology into other natural sciences.

It was established by Benjamin Waterhouse, co-founder of and professor at Harvard Medical School, in 1784.

[3][2][4] Today, the museum holds 400,000 specimens.