The Harvard Museum of Natural History announced the completion of the renovated permanent Africa gallery.
This historic gallery has been renovated and reinterpreted, with new energy-efficient lighting and colorful graphic displays. The installation of a new interactive video display addressing endangered species completes the upgrade. Visitors will see impressive mounted specimens of African wildlife, collected over a century ago, including hippopotamus, lions, ostrich, gorillas, hyena, plus a variety of rare animals from the island of Madagascar.
The specimens have been rearranged according to geographic habitat, allowing visitors to explore from the Wetlands, home of the pygmy hippopotamus, to the leopard’s Tropical forest, to the blesbok’s Savanna habitat, and to the Arid Lands of the gemsbok. With 188 specimens ranging in size from the elephant and the enormous common eland, a six foot tall antelope weighing as much as 1.1 tons, to the tiny pygmy kingfisher, the gallery presents a unique view of the vastly diverse wildlife of the African continent.
The renovations to the museum’s Africa gallery were made possible in part by gifts from Harvard alumni, including the late David B. Stone, Harvard 1950, who served for 32 years on the governing board of the Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology until his death this year, and from Abby and David Gray (Harvard AB ’75 and MBA 1980). The video interactive has benefited from collaboration and support from the Encyclopedia of Life. In addition the museum receives generous support from the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
“We are exceedingly grateful for the gifts from alumni which enhance our ability to share Harvard’s resources with a wide audience”, said Elisabeth Werby, Executive Director of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
Image: The Harvard Museum of Natural History
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