Florida Natural History Museum Exhibits
3215 Hull Road — Powell Hall
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Open: Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday 1-5 p.m.
Phone: 352-846-2000
General admission: Free to the public except for special exhibit areas and the Butterfly Rainforest.
Mission: The main goals of the Natural history museum are to investigate, record, and preserve the environmental, biological, and cultural history of Florida as well as to educate the public on the vast richness of Florida’s history and natural resources.
History: In 1891 Frank Pickle started The Florida Museum of Natural History at the Florida Agriculture College in Lake City. Pickle began the Museum when he purchased a collection of minerals, fossils, and human anatomy models in order to aid teaching biology and the agricultural sciences. From there, the collection grew with the donations and was relocated to the University of Florida in 1906. Arthur C. Allyn, Jr. gifted the museum with the Allyn Museum of Entomology in Sarasota, which at the time housed the largest butterfly collection in the Western Hemisphere. The museum was renamed to the Florida Museum of Natural History in 1988 in order to better describe the mission of the museum. After a large grant donated by two alumni couples, Bob and Ann and Steve and Carol Powell, in 1995 a new facility was created to house the growing collection, named Powell Hall, where it now resides today. The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity was built after two gift donations from William and Nadine McGuire in 2000, which is one of the world’s largest butterfly and moth collections in the world and includes the a 6,400-square-foot Butterfly Rainforest exhibit.
Key Persons:
Frank Pickel - Founder of the museum
Douglas S. Jones - Current interim director of the Museum
Arthur C. Allyn, Jr. - Donator
Bob and Ann Powell, Steve and Carol Powell – Donators
William and Nadine McGuire - Donators
Cultural Connections: The Natural History Museum’s primary focus is to research and persevere the natural and cultural history of Florida. Through the museum’s detailed and interactive displays and exhibits, attendees can learn about the rich history of Florida, starting from when it was still covered in salt water up to the time when explorers first landed on our coastline.
Highlighted Offerings:
- Titanoboa: Monster Snake – Recently unearthed by Florida Museum of Natural History scientists from a mine in Colombia, the 60-million year old Titanoboa is the largest snake in the world. A recreated 48-foot Titanoboa is currently on display along with the exhibit that shows how the mammoth snake was found.
- Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life and Land – Walkthrough a visual timeline of the evolution of Florida’s lanscape and the creatures that called it home.
- South Florida People & Environments – A realistic reconstruction of life for the native Calusa people who inhabited South Florida.