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Chronology
1900: Founded December 6 as the Colorado Museum of Natural History
1908: Museum is opened to the public for the first time on July 1
1910: First professional director is hired
1915: The Museum's first scientific publication is issued
1927: Museum's discovery of Folsom projectile point increases human antiquity in North America by thousands of years
1929: Museum inaugurates special program for schoolchildren and teachers
1932: Staff wages are reduced and activities curtailed as a result of the Great Depression
1940: Phipps Auditorium is dedicated; Museum's first elevator is installed
1942: World War II decreases Museum's staff and activities
1946: Museum's annual attendance tops one million for the first time
1948: Colorado Museum of Natural History modifies name to Denver Museum of Natural History
1955: Planetarium is installed and gives first show December 22
1962: Phipps Auditorium reopens after interior is destroyed by fire
1968: Planetarium aids in live NBC television coverage of the flight of Apollo 8
1972: Museum receives full accreditation from the American Association of Museums
1976: Museum's first broad-based appeal for supplementary financial support is launched
1982: Admission fee is collected for the first time in the Museum's history beginning January 1
1982: Dinosaur Stegosaurus becomes Colorado's state fossil
1982: Phipps Auditorium is converted into IMAX®Theater
1987: Museum hosts its first blockbuster traveling exhibition, "Ramses II: The Great Pharaoh and His Time"
1988: Denver metropolitan area voters approve the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District
1990: The state-of-the-art Schlessman Family Earth Sciences Laboratory opens to the public
1992: The Museum organized its largest temporary exhibition, Aztec: the World of Moctezuma
1996: Museum attendance went over 2 million for first time
2000: The Museum modifies its name to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Size
One of the largest natural history museums in the United States, its 500,896-square-foot facility is located in Denver's City Park.
Attendance
The Museum is the largest cultural attraction in the Rocky Mountain region. Onsite attendance in 1999 was 1.51 million visitors. Average annual onsite attendance in the 1990s has been 1.6 million visitors, with a peak of 1.86 million in 1992, which included the Aztec exhibition.
Membership
The Museum has one of the largest programs in the country with more than 46,000 corporate and household memberships.
Collections
Nearly 700,000 specimens and artifacts in the collections of anthropology, geology, health science, paleontology, space science, and zoology celebrate the natural and cultural history of the Rocky Mountain region and the world.
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