The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. With free admission and open doors 364 days a year, it is the most visited natural history museum in the world,[2] and most visited museum (of any type) in North America.[1] Opened in 1910, the museum on the National Mall was one of the first Smithsonian buildings constructed exclusively to hold the national collections and research facilities.[3] The main building has an overall area of 1,320,000 square feet (123,000 m2) with 350,000 square feet (33,000 m2) of exhibition and public space and houses over 1,000 employees.[3]
The museum's collections total over 126 million specimens[3] of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human cultural artifacts. With 7.4 million visitors in 2009, it is the most visited of all of the Smithsonian museums that year[4] and is also home to about 185 professional natural history scientists — the largest group of scientists dedicated to the study of natural and cultural history in the world.
Автор:Gruber, Martin A
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