It holds a research library, the John & Peggy Maximus Art Gallery [citation needed] and is the only museum to house a full-dome planetarium on the Central Coast.

[1] Though the effort waned at the end of the century, the arrival of ornithologist William Leon Dawson from Ohio re-ignited the project.

Dawson and a group of prominent Santa Barbarans founded the Museum of Comparative Oology, which was first located in two outbuildings on his property on Puesta del Sol Road in Mission Canyon.

Among the most notable of these is the Bird Habitat Hall featuring mounted specimens by staff members Egmont Rett and Waldo Abbott and background paintings by Ray Strong.

It has collections of over 3 million specimens and an active research program with a focus on marine biology, terrestrial vertebrates, insects, anthropology, geological mapping, and natural history art.

[citation needed] Greeting visitors near the front entrance is what has become an iconic display for the museum and Santa Barbara: a rearticulated skeleton of a 72 feet (22 m) blue whale.

The museum’s Gladwin Planetarium was renovated in early 2005 and equipped with technology to display distant planets, stars, and galaxies.

The museum has one of the largest extant collections of historical Native American basketry by Chumash basket weaver artists.