A Brief History of the Museum
The Florida Museum of Natural History (formerly known as the Florida State Museum) got its start in 1891 when Frank Pickel, a professor of natural science at Florida Agriculture College in Lake City, purchased research collections of minerals, fossils and human anatomy models as aids in teaching biology and agricultural sciences.
Flint Hall
The initial collections grew steadily with donations from other professors. When the Florida Agriculture College was abolished in 1905 the Museum became a part of the newly-created University of Florida, and was moved to Gainesville in 1906. The collections expanded in size and scope and were displayed for some time in a dormitory, Thomas Hall. Recognizing the significance of the growing research collections and teaching exhibits, the university found a new home for the Museum in the basement of the sciences building, Flint Hall.
Van Hyning
Thompson H. Van Hyning, director of the Iowa State Museum during the preceding 10 years, was appointed the Museum's first director in 1914 and ran the Museum virtually unassisted for 29 years.
In 1917, Chapter 240.515 of the Florida Statutes was enacted which formally established the Florida State Museum at the University of Florida. (The statutes were renumbered in 2000 so this statute is now FS §1004.56.)
Seagle Building
By the early 1930s, the Museum had acquired nearly half a million specimens and was running out of space. So, in 1937, the Museum's exhibits were moved to the Seagle Building in downtown Gainesville which they occupied for more than 30 years. Most of the collections remained in Flint Hall where they would be available to the faculty and students of the Department of Biology, which was housed in the building at that time. The collections continued to grow and space became so critical that by the mid-1960s all the zoological collections were transferred to the Seagle Building.
Grobman
Arnold Grobman became the director of the Museum in 1952 and the first full-time faculty were hired to curate the collections and interpret them to the public. In 1953, the Museum developed its first traveling exhibit - a panoramic survey of Florida history beginning with the state's earliest inhabitants.
Dickinson
In 1961, Joshua C. "J.C." Dickinson, Jr. was appointed Museum director. Under his leadership, research and education experienced explosive growth, particularly in curatorial staff and in the vertebrate systematics collections. The Seagle Building became increasingly cramped and once again there was a need for more space for research collections and exhibits. Dickinson spearheaded a drive for a new building.
Dickinson Hall
In 1968, with a $1.1 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation, and with matching funds from private donors and from state and local governments, construction began on a new Museum building on the University of Florida campus. By the fall of 1970, construction on the new building, Dickinson Hall, was complete and the research collections were moved into the new building. The public exhibits and education programs occupied the top floor of Dickinson Hall, which was formally dedicated in September 1971.
King
F. Wayne King became director in 1979 and oversaw a period of programmatic expansion. Through a $5.25 million grant from the Goodhill Foundation in 1980, the 9,500-acre Katharine Ordway Preserve, was acquired and the Katharine Ordway Chair of Ecosystem Conservation established in the Museum.
Allyn
Through a generous gift by its founder, Arthur C. Allyn, Jr., the Museum acquired the Allyn Museum of Entomology in Sarasota that same year. With this addition, the Museum received the largest butterfly collection in the Western Hemisphere and gained two curators of Lepidoptera.
Curatorial oversight of the UF Herbarium was transferred from the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences to the Museum and the faculties of the Museum's departments of Anthropology and Interpretation were expanded. Major orphaned collections were received from a number of sister institutions: fishes from the National Marine Fisheries Service's Tropical Atlantic Biological Laboratory and from Florida State University; mollusks from the University of Alabama and from Rollins College; and fossil invertebrates from the Florida Geological Survey.
Bennett
In 1986, Thomas Peter Bennett became Museum director. In 1988, the Florida State Museum's name was changed to the Florida Museum of Natural History to more accurately reflect its mission. Once again the continued growth of the research collections resulted in a shortage of space. Plans for a new exhibit and public education building came to fruition in 1995 when construction of a new facility, Powell Hall, began on Hull Road near S.W. 34th Street, approximately two miles west of Dickinson Hall. The new construction was made possible by a leadership gift of $3 million from two Florida alumni couples, Bob and Ann and Steve and Carol Powell of Fort Lauderdale, and with matching funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and from state government. Powell Hall joined the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art and the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts as the third component in the University of Florida Cultural Plaza on the western edge of campus.
Randell Research Center
In 1996, the Randell family gifted 53 acres of a 240-acre, internationally significant Pineland Site Complex in Lee County to the University of Florida, which the Florida Museum operates as the Randell Research Center. This research and education program is an extension of the Museum's Southwest Florida Project and "Year of the Indian" archaeology/education project.
Jones
With the departure of Bennett in 1996, Douglas S. Jones became interim director of the Museum and was named permanent director in 1997. Powell Hall, the new 55,000-square-foot Education and Exhibition Center, was dedicated that same year and opened to the public in January 1998. All of the exhibits and public education programs were relocated to Powell Hall where the permanent exhibits were installed in succeeding years.
Powell Hall
The vacated space in Dickinson Hall was retrofitted to relieve crowding due to continued collection growth. In 1997, the first phase of retrofitting was completed when the Herbarium moved from Rolf's Hall into Dickinson Hall. A major capital campaign is underway to fund initiatives at both Dickinson and Powell halls.
Butterfly Rainforest
A $4.2 million gift was received from William and Nadine McGuire of Wayzata, Minnesota in 2000 to establish the William W. and Nadine M. McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. This gift was one of the largest private gifts ever given to foster research on insects and was matched from the State of Florida Alec Courtelis Facilities Enhancement Challenge Grant Program. The McGuires later gave another $3 million to fund final construction of the center. This new $12 million facility for Lepidoptera research and public exhibits opened in August 2004. It houses over four million butterflies and moths and features a 6,400-square-foot Butterfly Rainforest exhibit -- a screened, outdoor enclosure of lush subtropical and tropical trees and plants that supports hundreds of living butterflies and moths from all corners of the globe with waterfalls and a walking trail.
Throughout its existence, the Florida Museum of Natural History has grown in size, quality and diversity. The Museum remains clearly focused on its mandated functions to undertake scientific research, make collections, establish and maintain a repository, develop exhibitions and conduct interpretive programs to educate the public.