Harvard's Indispensable Specimens
With collections dating to the late 1700s, Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology is one of the country's oldest museums. Displays drawn from the collection range from the skeleton of an extinct dodo bird to more than 300 different hummingbirds.
But the back rooms are filled with millions of items that will never be displayed. In this installment of the Hidden Treasures Radio Project, Harriet Baskas explains why curators at Harvard just can't throw anything away.
From the Harvard collection: At left, a model of extinct dodo; at right, a composite dodo skeleton.
Books Featured In This Story
The Rarest of the Rare
Stories Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Hardcover, 178 pages | purchase
Purchase Featured Books
- The Rarest of the Rare
- Stories Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
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