Museums

Museums Closed to the Public

We continue to monitor the evolving coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and prioritize the safety of our visitors, staff, students and volunteers. In the interests of reducing the number of people on campus and slowing the opportunity for transmission, the university museums are closing to the public, at the end of business on Thursday, March 12 until further notice. All public programs, classes, and events have been canceled. Over the next few weeks we will be assessing the situation and reviewing options for when we will be able to re-open to the public.

The Harvard Museums of Science & Culture (HMSC) is a partnership of four Harvard museums designed to coordinate captivating programming for all ages, permanent galleries, and dynamic rotating exhibits. HMSC invites you to connect with Harvard University's distinctive collections and vital research on human civilizations, biodiversity, and the history of Earth and science.

Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

Image of CHSI's Putnam Gallery

1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (Google Map)

A Heritage of Exploration

Harvard has been acquiring scientific instruments for teaching and research since 1672. This collection, established in 1948, is one of the three largest university collections of its kind in the world and contains telescopes, timepieces, computers, optical equipment, and much more.

Harvard Museum of Natural History

Image of the Glass Flower Gallery at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (Google Map)

Look Closer, Dig Deeper

Home to the world-famous Blaschka Glass Flowers from the Harvard University Herbaria, thousands of minerals in the renovated Earth & Planetary Sciences gallery, and hundreds of animals, shells, birds, and more from Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Harvard Museum of Natural History is one of Boston's most popular museums.

Harvard Semitic Museum

Image of the Israel House at the Harvard Semitic Museum

6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 (Google Map)

Archaeology of the Ancient Near East

The Harvard Semitic Museum explores the rich history of cultures connected by the family of Semitic languages. Home to the University's collections of over 40,000 Near Eastern artifacts, the museum collection includes pottery, cylinder seals, sculpture, coins, and cuneiform tablets.

Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology

11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 (Google Map)

Visit the Faces of 10,000 Years

View towering Native American totem poles and large Maya sculptures, examine precious artifacts of the ancient world, and take classes and attend public lectures based on the museum's world-class collections and scholarship. Among the oldest archaeological museums in the world, the Peabody contains one of the finest collections of human cultural history in existence.