When we got to Harvard we walked across the yard to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It is a great place. It never feels crowded, and it is just the right size to explore. It has a bit of a musty feel too, and I think one reasn it feels so different from other museums is that it is crammed full of stuff. In one display case in a room full of display cases, you'll see stuffed specimens of two adult tigers, a snow leopard, a jaguar, and a few other large cats. There is more to look at than you can possibly digest. There are a few rooms full of fossils, including Lee's favorite, a 42-foot long Kronosaurus (she wanted to bring it home with us, and I had to tell her we didn't have a room big enough to hold it). The large room at the back has three whale skeletons hanging from the ceiling. There are display cases full of hundreds of types of beetles (The biologist J. S. B. Haldane liked to say that if biology had taught him anything about the nature of the Creator, it was that he had “an inordinate fondness for beetles.”), and one containing more hummingbirds than you knew existed.
Obviously these are all from a previous era, when biologists felt no compunction about killing whatever animal they were studying just to have it in their collection. Times have changed, but now that Harvard owns all this stuff, I guess they might as well display it. But you can't help feeling a bit bad about the fate of the marvelous Bengal tiger or the colorful quetzal.
I think, however, that the train was still the highlight of the day. On the way home, the conductor tooted the horn for the girls. What a thrill.
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