Cleveland Museum of Natural History

One of the major quibbles I had with New York's Natural History Museum was its outdated signage (or simply complete lack thereof). Thus when I got to Cleveland I was overjoyed to see that one very thing corrected, that even though there are items in the collection that have been there for many, many years, a change of signage can make even the tiredest old pieces seem fresher and newer.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History

The Natural History Museum also houses a new (one week old at the time of visiting) planetarium and a wildlife area. We were lucky enough to arrive on a 'free day', although $10 is not much to pay for general admission to such a good museum. The planetarium is $4 extra, and is a new Sky-Skan Definiti system with good presenters who are thrilled about its new functionality. They are planning to make sure that the planetarium stays with presenter-led night sky shows which will be brilliant.

The staff were all very helpful and friendly and it is clear that even though the money hasn't been there to finance that many new exhibits, at least new signage has been put around the museum to freshen the place up. My host told me that much of the place hasn't changed in its content, but it was clear that some of the information signs and labels had been updated recently and it really makes the difference.

Outside there are otters, birds and wild cats, all rescue animals that are now being kept safe in the museum. Watching the feeding was popular whilst I was there, and the signboards outside give good information. One of my favourite exhibits within the whole museum though was the Foucault Pendulum in the main hall, which demonstrates the movement of the Earth by knocking over dominos and other toys. Wonderfully visual.

Of course with any museum there will be constant funding issues, especially when a new planetarium has just been built. I can therefore understand that some signs had not been renewed and still looked to be from the 70s and 80s. At least Cleveland has made the effort to update its collection and its signage such that it creates a fresh appearance for the casual visitor. A good museum!