Things to do / Travel Guide
Address:W 34th St. and Hull Rd.
Gainesville, Florida
Tel:
(352) 846-2000
Founded in 1891, the Florida Museum of Natural History is Florida's state museum of natural history, dedicated to understanding and preserving biological diversity and cultural heritage. Located at the University of Florida, it is the largest natural history museum in the Southeast and draws a large number of tourists every year. The museum is located on the University of Florida campus and Powell Hall is the museum's 55,000-square-foot Education and Exhibition Center.
The museum's exhibits house 20 million specimens of amphibians, birds, butterflies, fish, mammals, mollusks, reptiles, vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, as well as plant fossils. Award winning exhibits describe 65 million years of Floridian history. The exhibit Northwest Florida: Waterways & Wildlife follows the waterways and wildlife of northwest Florida, the most biodiverse region of the state. This exhibit includes a hardwood hammock, featuring a life-sized limestone cave, a seepage bog with its carnivorous plants, and a Native American trading scene.
The highlight of the Florida Museum of Natural History is for sure the Butterfly Rainforest. Hundreds of vibrant and exotic butterflies will flutter around you and the beautiful nectar flowers as you stroll along the winding path. There's also a cascading waterfall!
The museum showcases numerous temporary exhibits such as Inside Africa, photographs by Ken Sourbeer on Florida's Vanishing Habitats and Wildlife, Charles R. Knight: Studies of Lost Worlds, and Butterflies and Moths in Contemporary Zuni Art.
The Collectors Shop and Butterfly Rainforest Shop offer photos, posters, chocolates, jewelry, fashion accessories, kitchen items, clothing, nature kits, music and books.
To get to the Florida Museum of Natural History, take I-74 and exit 384 heading east onto State Road 24 (Archer Road). Go left onto State Road 121 (SW 34th St.) and make a right onto Hull Road. You can also take the RTS using routes 20, 21, or 34.