[5] In early 2025, it was reported that the Museum faced an imminent threat of closure due a withdrawal of donor support leading to an urgent budget shortfall.

[7] Director Warren D. Allmon expressed interest in acquiring the skeleton after being notified on October 21, 1999 by the National Marine Fisheries Service that the 44-foot (13 m) right whale had been spotted dead off the coast of Cape May, New Jersey.

Three days later, the bones arrived at PRI,[8] where they were buried in a bed of horse manure for several months in order to remove the remaining flesh and oil.

The exhibit includes baleen specimens as well as a short film by David Brown featuring footage of the unsuccessful attempts to rescue #2030 from the fishing gear that ultimately killed her.

The entire mural is approximately 500 feet long and is displayed along a ramp leading visitors from the lobby to the lower-level exhibits.

[11] A Journey Through Time leads visitors through four billion years of history, from the Big Bang to the present day, with an additional focus on the future as shaped by human effects and dependence on the Earth.

[4]: 95  The exhibit includes three main sections devoted to the Devonian of Central New York, the Triassic and Jurassic of Connecticut, Newark, and the Hudson Valley, and the Quaternary glaciation.

Highlights include the Hyde Park Mastodon, the Discovery Labs, coral reef aquaria, a glacier exhibit, four audio-visual object theaters featuring short films narrated by geologist and Cornell President Emeritus Frank H.T.

Rhodes, Steggy the Stegosaurus and Amelia the Quetzalcoatlus, and a garden that mimics the landscape of the northeastern United States during the Ice Age, with tundra vegetation, polished gravel, and glacial erratic boulders.

[13] In June 2000, PRI staff along with volunteers from several organizations and universities began draining the site and discovered more mastodon bones.

[15] Post-excavation, the specimen was shipped first to the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, where it was studied and a cast of the bones was created, then to Alberta, Canada, where an armature for the skeleton was assembled.

A bronze, life-size statue of Cecil, created by Brazilian sculptor Yure Berkley Lima de Alenca, can be seen near the museum's entrance.