Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved going to museums. I’ve always loved history. My dad drilled it into me at a young age that if we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. My dad loves war history, so he and I would sit down every weekend and watch The History Channel (when it actually had historical stuff on it). This love of history grew as I did. It was always my best subject in school. So naturally when I take trips to other places, I like to experience what other states have to offer as far as museums go. One of the best places you can go for some amazing exhibits is the Smithsonian United States Museum of Natural History. There are a ridiculous amount of exhibits to see, but most people don’t know that 99.9% of the items that these museums have are stored in the back, away from the public eye. The employees decided to share their staff photos that are taken in the back where most of their items are stored. It would take you weeks to tour this place if they had everything open to the public.
This is the Ornithology section.
The insect section. This gives me the creeps just looking at it.
The Anthropology section looks absolutely amazing. So much human history in these drawers.
The invertebrate zoology section.
Mineral sciences. These things are absolutely beautiful.
These are the botanical collections. There are probably some pretty poisonous things in here.
Even more Anthropology. There is probably a ton of stuff in this section. Look how massive that head to the right is.
The Paleobiology section. I would love to explore all these fossils.
These jars all contain different fish!
These mice are from the department of Vertebrate Zoology. Hopefully these can’t cause disease outbreaks.
Different types of Algae contained within the botanical collections.
These are whale bones from the Vertebrate Mammal section.
Getting a glimpse of these massive collections of artifacts would make anyone jealous. It’s amazing how much actual stuff is stored in this museum. It’s a wonder they don’t show off more of these amazing relics. Getting to walk through this place would be an absolute dream come true. I honestly wouldn’t be able to hold back my excitement at getting to view so much history in one place.