Great Mammal Hall at Harvard Museum of Natural History reopens

The Great Mammal Hall in the Harvard Museum of Natural History is restored and reopened.

Photograph by Jim Harrison

Photograph by Jim Harrison

The Great Mammal Hall, a two-story gallery 60 feet long by 40 wide, is the oldest and most dramatic in the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH). The hall was emptied of its taxonomic treasures as part of a renovation commemorating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Museum of Comparative Zoology: the animals were removed and repaired and the display cases restored to their nineteenth-century colors, replacing a palette dating to the 1960s. The gallery reopened October 16. Above, a gaur noses into the stream of escapees during the renovation.

You might also like

After a final round of layoffs, University leaders say 165 staff jobs were eliminated across the division.

A roundup of University news from the summer of 2026

FAS leaders say restructuring will be complete by mid-October.

Most popular

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

The stakes are high for this husband and wife: one of them will die if they don’t find a cure.

The University will compensate families of those whose remains were sold and establish a scholarship to honor anatomical donors.

Explore More From Current Issue

A football player in a white jersey evades a defender in a green uniform on the field.

Despite personnel losses, Crimson captain Xaviah Bascon is upbeat about the 2026 season.

A smiling elderly man in glasses sits comfortably in a striped armchair.

Plus, veteran higher education leader Thomas Ehrlich reflects on university curricula for his 70th reunion

Colorful cartoon animals, including dogs, cows, rabbits, and a fence, on a pink background.

Inseparable cows, big dogs fostering a tiny kitten, and a show beagle’s second act