The National Museum of Natural History/National Museum of Man is the nation's largest research museum, responsible for maintaining and conderving a treasure house of more than 118 million specimens of plants, animals rocks and minerals, fossils and human cultural artifacts. This encyclopedic collection is an essential resourcefor the nation's scientific enterprises, providing fundamental documentation for the study of the history of life, earth sciences, the biological living world, and human origins and cultures.
The nucleus of the collection was aquired in the 19th century by the U.S. government expeditions that helped open the American West and the Pacific. Today, the influx of collections continues through gifts,purchases,expeditions of museum scientists, and deposits from other government agencies.
Only a tiny portion of the museum's holdings are on public display at any one time. The bulk of the collection is stored behind the scenes in laboratories, offices, and storage areas, where it serves as the focal point of research conducted by the museum's staff of 120 scientists and their colleagues from the universities, other museums, and U.S. government agencies.
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