The museum's dioramas date back to the early 20th century, created by master taxidermist Jenness Cortes and painter Francis Lee Jaques.
The collection contains over 4 million scientific specimens, some of which date back to the 1800s.
The building is LEED Gold certified, featuring a 255-kilowatt solar array on the roof.
The planetarium is the only one in the state that utilizes a high-resolution 8K fulldome digital projection system.
The original Bell Museum was founded in 1872, making it one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the region.
The Bell Museum serves as Minnesota's official state natural history museum, located on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. It features the Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Planetarium, which utilizes 8K projection technology to present astronomy programming. The museum is renowned for its collection of historic wildlife dioramas, which include taxidermy specimens integrated with hand-painted, scientifically accurate backgrounds. These dioramas depict various Minnesota ecosystems, ranging from the north woods to the prairie. The facility serves as a research repository, housing millions of specimens in natural history collections including botany, zoology, and paleontology. It functions as a center for scientific literacy, hosting rotating exhibitions that focus on climate change, biology, and space exploration. The building itself is designed with sustainable architecture, incorporating solar energy and bird-safe glass.
The life-sized bronze woolly mammoth sculpture situated in the outdoor learning landscape.
Check the planetarium schedule online before arriving, as shows require separate tickets and have limited capacity.
Allocate extra time to explore the outdoor Learning Landscape, which features native plant gardens and a life-sized bronze woolly mammoth sculpture.
Visit the interactive touch-screen displays in the galleries to access supplemental research data and high-resolution images of the archives.
Do not overlook the 'Minnesota Journeys' gallery, which is often bypassed by visitors rushing straight to the planetarium.
Closed on Mondays.
Photography is permitted without flash; keep noise levels low in the quiet zones near the research archives.
