University of Kansas
KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum
 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, Kansas 66045
(785) 864-4450

Tuesday - Saturday: 9AM-5PM   Sunday: Noon-4PM
Reservations Required    $7/adults  $4/children

Natural History Museum Map  Kansas fossil & geology attractions

University of Kansas Natural History Museum in Lawrence, Kansas
University of Kansas Natural History Museum
University of Kansas Natural History Museum - Lawrence, Kansas

The University of Kansas Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center in Lawrence, Kansas offers 4 floors of natural history exhibits in a hundred year old limestone building.

For more than 140 years, scientists and students from the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center have collected and studied life on Earth. The museum has more than eight million specimens of plants and animals, including prehistoric and living species gathered from every continent and ocean. Their collections include DNA samples, sound recordings, images, and field notes.

The main floor of the Natural History Museum is largely taken up with a diorama with several multiple environmental habitats and mounted animals which were prepared by the University of Kansas professor Lewis Lindsay Dyche for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The building housing the KU Natural History Museum was built to be the permanent home of the collection in 1903. The building was renamed Dyche Hall after his death and is now on the National Registry of Historic Buildings. Over the years, the University of Kansas added animals from Mexico and the Arctic, so the display now represents all of North America.

Parking on the University of Kansas campus streets is hard to find. The Mississippi Street parking garage may be the closest and most convenient place to park. The garage cost is $1.75 for the first hour and $1.50 per hour thereafter. (Spring 2022 prices)

The Fossilogics Gift Shop has a selection of museum souvenirs, educational toys, games, books and a variety of unique merchandise. The Natural History Museum gift shop is open the same hours as the museum.

The Wilcox Classical Museum and Spencer Museum of Art are both a short walk away on the University of Kansas campus.

North American panorama at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum
The museum says that the Panorama of North American plants and animals is the largest diorama of its kind
in the world. It features the flora and fauna of habitats from the Arctic tundra to the rain forest.

Duck-Billed Dinosaur (Parasaurolophu walkeri) - University of Kansas
Duck-Billed Dinosaur (Parasaurolophu walkeri)

Mosasaurs - University of Kansas
Mosasaurs of Kansas


Ice Age Proboscideans of Kansas


Exhibits include live native Kansas fish, insects, and reptiles like this Massasauga Rattlesnake

Explore Evolution at Triceratops prorsus
The "Explore Evolution" exhibit opened November of 2005

Bee colony
Bee Tree - a live bee colony housed in a model tree

Comanche - horse from the Little Bighorn
Comanche

One of the most popular exhibits at the KU Natural History Museum is Comanche, the US Seventh Cavalry horse that survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn. When the burial party arrived at the battlefield, 2 days after the battle, 14 year old Comanche was the only living creature remaining. Although Comanche had been struck by 7 bullets, he recovered, toured much of the country and eventually retired at Fort Riley where he lived to the age of 29. Like the mounted animals in the huge diorama, Comanche was exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Natural History Museum Map - Lawrence, Kansas

University of Kansas Natural History Museum web site
Kansas Attractions  Kansas Travel & Tourism Home

copyright 2005-2022 by Keith Stokes