university of nebraska state museum

amandabQ5659BK

The fossils of dinosaurs, mammoths, and rhinos found in the Great Plains are amazing. Well worth seeing! Be sure to see Elephant Hall and the exhibits of other fossils found in the area. Very cool! The exhibits of African culture and minerals vs. rocks, however, are seriously dated and kind of terrible. They really need to redo these exhibits! The Africa exhibits juxtapose stories from West Africa with artifacts from East Africa as if it were all the same place. Also, the map on the wall is quite old and has incorrect names for newer nations. The exhibit about First Peoples of the Plains is also somewhat out of date. File photos don't cite what tribe people represent, who took the photo, or when it was taken - so essentially they're useless. And the exhibits of minerals! BORING. These are cool specimens, but the display is terrible. Bad, dim light, too much text, not enough touching, etc. Hoping for updates!

Cait1649

Lots of interesting exhibits from Dinos to present! Staff is also very educated and if they don't know the answer they will find it out for you!

TapestryH

The University students working here were absolutely wonderful the day we visited, and there were many unique displays. I could have easily spent another few hours here. My only complaint was that there was no poster of the museum in the gift shop.

454ericn

I get around a lot having traveled for a living for almost 30 years now and this is one of the finest natural history museums I have ever seen outside of NYC or DC. In fact I am inspired to begin studying and collecting rocks while I am here in Nebraska. We did a lot of ducking around avoiding the school groups on the Wednesday we were there, but even as grumpy as I am, I can't complain about children being excited by dinosaurs. Boy do they have a lot of dinosaurs. The hall of elephant's was most appealing to me maybe because I associate them with Ray Ramano, still there is an impressive variety of complete mastodon skeletons and bones.Also very appealing to me and easily overlooked was an exhibit of skeletons of animals found in a modern Nebraska barnyard. I was raised on a farm and still found myself agog contemplating it all.Don't miss the upper floor minerals displays, it opened my eyes somehow and I can't wait for the winter to lift so I can begin rock hounding and looking for arrowheads.In short I love this place and at 6 dollars a head hard to beat for a museum you could easily explore for 6 to 8 hours.

sgarcia95

I really enjoyed the museum it was very big with many different things to offer there are all kinds of fossils stones and many links to the Nebraska history.

LyndaC3

Had no idea that there were all of those elephants in Nebraska!! This was a very informative and interesting afternoon, and I wish our eight-year-old grandson had been willing to take a slightly slower pace so that we could have read more and learned even more. We enjoyed our time in the museum and especially enjoyed the planetarium show.

67emilt

This is a good museum for Nebraska with nice exhibits it can't compare to those in much larger cities but it great for Lincoln and I highly recommend it if you have a free afternoon in Lincoln.

Carly509

Well spaced and informative exhibits. My husband & I have taken advantage of this states various fossil sites and found the display at Morrill Hall to be top quality. Loved the monsters of ancient seas & dinosaurs display!

cedric09

A natural history museum that the entire family can enjoy. Specializing in local fossils and minerals, the collection is beautifully displayed and painstakingly notated. Planetarium shows available at an extra charge. Well worth a visit.

debbies320

Went with my son (age 8) and we loved the whole place! We were disappointed when they were closing at 4:30pm! The fossils and the information on all the animals was amazing! The kids interactive room was a highlight for my son. He had wanted to touch everything in the museum, so this allowed him to get that out of his system by 'digging' for fossils himself and touching many stuffed animals and pelts, shells, etc. The beaver coat was our favorite...really quite amazing!

DRobinson1980

My husband, I and our adult daughter spent a wonderful two or three hours at this museum. The cost was very reasonable, the exhibits were well kept up, attractive and interesting. We learned some things we didn't know and had fun exploring the different rooms. The museum has a terrific collection of fossils and skeletons, and when we were there, they had a special Smithsonian exhibit about Titanoboa, the largest snake ever. Many of the exhibits were accompanied by televisions with short film loops-- not so long as to make us lose interest but informative, adding info about the display. There were a lot of interactive displays-- since we didn't have children with us we didn't partake in most of these but we did a few and they were fun. It was a great place to spend a few hours!

AKLR

This is a wonderful museum, very reasonable admittance charge, and lots of fun for all ages. Children of all ages as well as adults can enjoy this experience. And what better, you also get to catch a glimpse of our Memorial Stadium where the Huskers play. Or just wander around the University of Nebraska's campus.

AdalbertSchmidt

Nebraska has an abundance of fossils and this is made very clear in the wide variety on display here. The museum is situated on a university campus so even the walk to it is quite pleasant. This is well worth a visit.

AF_Hiker

I really enjoyed the large collection of fossils they have. The animal dioramas down on the first floor were also nice. I'm not much into space, but the planetarium was really just one small room. They do have a theater for the planetarium shows. They also have a large collection of rocks and minerals. This is a nice place to visit.

ShelleyA564

This is a nice place to spend the afternoon and several areas change frequently. The have a great selection of fossils and Native American artifacts. An area downstairs houses a fun, interactive area for younger kids. Our son could spend hours looking at the rocks/minerals exhibit. Very reasonable fee and a nice gift shop. Try to avoid a field trip day if possible.