Cleveland Museum of Natural History 2024!

Once a month our staff explores a different part of the region (a day we call EA University) to learn up to date info to share with the candidates and newcomers we work with. Thanks to Andrew Bednarski for his guided tour at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History where they are in the middle of a multi-year transformation. With a Ph.D. from Cambridge in Egyptology, Andrew is the ideal person to raise awareness and funding and his enthusiasm is contagious. It might have been a chilly rainy day but that’s the PERFECT weather to go into a museum, right?

CMNH, one of the finest in the country, started from humble roots in the 1830’s, when  a small group of men gathered at The Ark, a two room frame house in Cleveland’s Public Square to share research, collections and ideas about natural sciences. There were no museums in Cleveland at this time.

With an expected completion date of 2024, the museum is re-imagining how the public interacts with natural history. Gone will be the chronological timeline of our humankind, our planet and the solar system. Instead you will be immersed in an interactive experience highlighting biological and geological processes in relation to human impact.

We are looking forward to a new 14,000 SF Visitor Hall that will extend from the parking garage to the museum’s Wade Oval entrance. It will be free to the public and encourage further exploration of galleries and offer initial encounters with eight of the museum’s world-class specimens including:

• Lucy – discovered in Ethopia by our museum’s own curator in 1974, at the time it was the oldest and most complete early ancestor of human
• Jeptha Home Wade gem collection – wow, and it’s not just us…this is the finest collection of gem materials on display at a museum in the country
• Apollo 12 moon rock – created by a meteor impact more than 200 million years ago
• Dunk – a giant armored skull formally known as Dunkleosteus terrelli, found in the excavation of the Big Creek Valley on Cleveland’s southwest side when I-71 was being built. 350+ million years ago a shallow sea covered our region and this species were the largest predator in the water….thank goodness no humans were on earth yet or no one would ever dip their toe in the Rocky River!

• Happy – the Museum’s Late Jurassic sauropod, nicknamed Happy, is the only known adult specimen of this dinosaur complete enough to display in its entirety
• Balto – in 1925 this sled dog raced to bring vaccines to diphtheria stricken residents of Nome Alaska and his story has inspired movie makers ever since

In addition to the Museum building in University Circle, CMNH conducts research on 66 other sites in the region to study natural history including marshes, forests and meadows.

As promised to the public, the museum will remain open during construction, including the Ralph Perkins Wildlife Area, which our staff has enjoyed on orientation days when we have families with children who need a stop to run around and be kids.

Happy to help spread the word and eager to see the new look of the Museum, with floor to ceiling glass walls replacing the imposing brick facade at the main entrance. A look that will encourage all to come in and explore!

For more information on how Executive Arrangements can help your organization woo, welcome and on-board candidates and new hires to our region, in a time where the market is hyper competitive to land and keep top talent, call us as 216.231.9311.