MUS-F2

The Bead Site =Home> Bead Research > Featured Museums > Denver

Featured Museum - 2

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science (formerly the Denver Museum of Natural History) is one of the world's great museums. Its collections of local fauna, its African hall, its mineral specimens, its archaeological and ethnographic holdings and its dinosaurs are famous around the world. Its bead collections win it a space here.

In 1900, when Denver was very new and the State of Colorado was only 24, the Colorado Museum of Natural History was incorporated. It was to house the large collection of Colorado fauna amassed by gold miner Edwin Carter. Carter was pleased with the plans he never saw realized: "As Denver is destined to be among the great cities of the Continent, so will a museum here founded... grow up to be one of the great entertaining and educational institutions of the country."

The DMNS grew physically over the years, adding new additions every few decades. The 1987 additions surrounded most of the old museum structure, giving a museum within a museum feeling.

The additions (foreground) surround the old outside walls (background).

Among the DMNS most famous holdings is a prehistoric "Folsom point" found lodged between two bones of an extinct bison, proving the association with ancient man. (left)

Dinosaur casts greet visitors in the front hall. (right)

As for beads, the museum's holdings are outstanding. They include excavated specimens, some of them among America's oldest beads. The Crane collection has a superior collection of beadwork and parts of the Fenstermaker collection. An unusual wampum belt is a prized holding. The collection continues to grow through donations. The DMNS has founded a Bead Study Group and has made me a Research Associate.

Source: Kris Haglund (1990) Denver Museum of Natural History: The First 90 Years DMNH, Denver.

_____________________________________________________