The Yale Peabody Museum reopened to the public on Tuesday after undergoing renovations for four years.
“Just about everything has changed. They’ll see some familiar things like our dioramas and big murals, they’re still here. But all the displays are brand new,” said David Skelly, the director of the Yale Peabody Museum.
During renovations, they built a brand-new wing and relocated administrative offices, which provided 50% more gallery space.
The museum is most known for its dinosaur exhibit.
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“Our founding director, a guy named O.C. Marsh, was the first professor of paleontology in North America and so the dinosaurs that most of us heard of as kids like brontosaurus and stegosaurus and triceratops, they’re here and these are not just examples of them, they’re the ones that were discovered and the names were hung on. That’s really the most famous thing we’re known for.”
Two classes of New Haven public school students (sixth-grade students from the Augusta Lewis Troup School and first-grade students from the Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration) were the first to see the museum.
“I’ve been coming to this museum since I was 5 years old and there’s not much that’s better than walking underneath the neck of a Brontosaurus so I think that’s going to continue to be a big deal,” said Skelly.
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There’s not much that’s better than walking underneath the neck of a Brontosaurus.
David Skelly, director of the Yale Peabody Museum
They also have a gallery called the Human Footprint and that’s talking about humans evolving. There is a long-running exhibit on the history of science and in mid-April the popular mineral display will reopen.
Skelly said he was looking forward to seeing what excites visitors and looks forward to welcoming people in now that the museum is completely free to the public. Prior to closing for renovations, it was the only Yale museum charging admission.
“Just getting that out of the way, it changes the relationship between the museum and the visitors. That’s what’s exciting to me,” Skelly said.
