 Onion Creek Mosasaur skeleton | |
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| Established | 1939 |
|---|---|
| Location | 2400 Trinity Street Austin, Texas |
| Coordinates | 30°17′13″N 97°43′57″W / 30.2870°N 97.7324°W |
| Type | Natural history museum |
| Owner | University of Texas at Austin |
| Website | tmm.utexas.edu |
The Texas Science & Natural History Museum is located on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, U.S. It opened as the Texas Memorial Museum during preparations for the Texas Centennial Exposition held in 1936. The museum's focus is on natural history, including paleontology, geology, biology, herpetology, ichthyology and entomology. The Texas Memorial Museum building was designed in the Art Deco style by John F. Staub, with Paul Cret as supervising architect. Ground was broken for the building by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1936.[1] The museum was opened on January 15, 1939.
The museum won "Best of Austin" awards from the Austin Chronicle in 2002, 2005, and 2012.[2]
The museum had exhibits on Texas history, anthropology, geography, and ethnography, but these were relocated to other museums (including the Bullock Texas State History Museum) in 2001. In October 2013, Linda Hicke, the dean of Austin's College of Natural Sciences, cut the museum's funding by $400,000.[3]
The museum closed in 2022 for extensive renovations.[4] It underwent a re-branding and became Texas Science & Natural History Museum. The museum reopened on September 23, 2023.[5]
- ^ TeamWeb (May 2001). "UT Austin - VRC - Highlights". UT Austin. Archived from the original on February 14, 2005.
- ^ "Awards Received". Texas Memorial Museum. The University of Texas at Austin. Archived from the original on April 13, 2015.
- ^ Green, Anthony (October 29, 2013). "On-campus museum set to lose $400,000 in funding". The Daily Texan. Archived from the original on July 24, 2018. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
- ^ Seale, Avrel (September 20, 2023). "An Evolving Texas Memorial Museum Opens Again". UT News. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
- ^ "History of the Museum". The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved September 21, 2023.