1. Photograph: Michael Juliano
    Photograph: Michael Juliano
  2. Photograph: Michael Juliano
    Photograph: Michael Juliano
  3. Photograph: Michael Juliano
    Photograph: Michael Juliano
  4. Photograph: Michael Juliano
    Photograph: Michael Juliano
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    Photograph: Michael Juliano
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    Photograph: Michael Juliano
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    Photograph: Michael Juliano
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    Photograph: Michael Juliano
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    Photograph: Michael Juliano
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    Photograph: Michael Juliano
  11. Photograph: Michael Juliano
    Photograph: Michael Juliano
  • Museums | Natural history
  • price 1 of 4
  • USC/Exposition Park
  • Recommended

Natural History Museum

Advance tickets recommended; free for county residents from 3–5pm.

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Time Out says

The NHM’s original Beaux Arts structure was the first museum building in Los Angeles, opening with Exposition Park itself back in 1913. Its massive collection spans more than 35 million objects and specimens (not all of them are on display at any one time), making it second in size only to the Smithsonian’s. 

It’s an immense place, so it’s well worth planning your visit. Those with only a little time to spare should head directly to the truly dazzling collections in the gem and mineral hall, where the exhibits include a 4,644-carat topaz, a 2,200-carat opal sphere and a quartz crystal ball which, with a diameter of 10.9in and a weight of 65lbs, is one of the biggest on earth.

A six-year, $135-million program of renovations wrapped up in 2013, including the addition of 108,000 square feet of indoor space. The Otis Booth Pavilion now welcomes visitors into the museum from the north with a six-story light-filled glass entrance, featuring a stunning, 63-foot-long fin whale skeleton. Twelve new galleries and five exhibits have opened, including “Becoming L.A.,” which examines the Los Angeles region’s history from Native Americans to the Catholic missions, the Industrial Revolution and the World Wars, to the present day. Outdoors, the Nature Gardens features 3.5-acre urban wilderness with a pond, dry creek bed, beautiful landscaping and other features that attract local critters. The Nature Lab features interactive multimedia and live animal habitats, telling the stories of L.A.’s wild residents.

The wonderful skylight that crowns the museum’s rotunda has already been restored to beautiful effect, and an Age of Mammals exhibit, opened in July 2010, was soon joined by a new 14,000-square-foot dinosaur hall.

Other highlights include three old-school diorama halls; the effectively creepy and dauntingly crawly insect zoo; and the visible vault, easily the most interesting of the anthropological exhibits.

The website also has details of special events; among them is the First Friday program held on the first Friday night of the month, which features tours, lectures, music from hipster-friendly acts and even DJs.

Details

Address
Exposition Park
900 Exposition Blvd
Los Angeles
90007
Price:
$15 adults; $12 seniors/students with ID & children 13-17; $7 children 3-12; children under 2, active military with ID, CA teachers with ID, and members free. L.A. County residents free Mon–Fri 3–5pm.
Opening hours:
Daily 9:30am–5pm; closed first Tue of the Month
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What’s on

Spider Pavilion

Face your fears and head to the Natural History Museum’s Spider Pavilion, where you can observe several hundred orbweaver spiders in a living exhibit just outside of the museum. Scared the spiders might be hard to spot in the wild? Fret not. In previous iterations we’ve spotted ones about the size of an adult’s palm. Gulp. (But don’t worry: The scariest ones are in enclosed habitats.) 

  • Walks and tours

Reframing Dioramas: The Art of Preserving Wilderness

The Natural History Museum’s taxidermy dioramas turn a century old this year, and to celebrate the museum is reviving an entire hall of displays that’ve been dark for decades. Expect some fresh approaches to these assembled snapshots of the wilderness, including alebrijes made of recycled materials, a crystalline depiction of pollution and a tech-driven display of the L.A. River.

  • Installation

Boney Island at NHM

L.A.’s Natural History Museum is already loaded up with all sorts of fossilized remains, so it feels like a perfect fit that this skeleton-filled seasonal event would find its way to the museum. Boney Island, a beloved kid-friendly Halloween event that called Griffith Park home until the pandemic, will continue its relocated run at NHM’s Nature Gardens. From October 3 to 31, the illuminated installation will bring familiar fixtures (skeleton performers, shadow puppets) and mix them with some sciency additions (fossils, animal presentations). The homegrown, carnival-themed haunt started more than 20 years ago on The Simpsons producer Rick Polizzi’s front lawn in Sherman Oaks. But for the past decade or so it had set up annually in Griffith Park—at least until its temporary closure in 2020. Last year, though, it returned thanks to this setup at the Natural History Museum. You’ll find Boney Island running select nights. Tickets cost $25 for adults and go on sale to the general public on September 3. Limited tickets will be available on-site during museum hours and at the start of the event each night.

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