Westfalen in October can mean only one thing: rain, rain and more rain. But nothing is to spoil my mood today: I’ve come to Münster, more or less on a whim, for this lovely natural history museum (as well as the zoo next door). The museum is currently undergoing partial renovations, but no matter; I’ll come back again next year to see what they made of it. A planetarium is also housed in the building at an upcharge. It’s worth…
Museums
Ah, the glamorous lifestyle of the dinosaur blogger. It’s a life full of fast cars, fancy clothes, exclusive parties, sexy people of all genders and, don’t forget, exotic locations all around the world. Today we are in Vlaardingen! It’s a historic fishing town in the greater Rotterdam area. Rotterdam is famed for both its bizarre architecture and interesting museums. Not to be outdone, Vlaardingen has some of its own to offer in both categories. The collection of Museum Vlaardingen is…
Last time, we explored the upper floor of the baroque 19th century palace that holds the Natural History Museum of Vienna. It’s time to descend the marble staircase into the past and take our journey through deep time, from the distant precambrian days to the Holocene. Maybe we’ll even meet some dinosaurs along the way, who knows? I hadn’t done any research beforehand, so I visited the museum with very limited knowledge and not much in the way of expectations.…
There’s many natural history museums in this world. Not many of them look like this: Granted, this isn’t the museum we’re talking about, although it does indeed look similar. The above image is of the nearly identical Kunsthistorisches Museum across the square. Cross the square, to the other side of the bombastic monument to Empress Maria Theresia. Here is the real subject of today’s excursion: That’s right, we’re in Vienna today and we’re going to see the famous Naturhistorisches Museum.…
It’s been over two years since I shared with you my first experience of the renovated Naturalis, the Netherlands’ premier museum of nature and natural history. My review, found here and here, was somewhat mixed, and for whatever reason (I forget the reason but I’m fairly sure there was a reason) we missed the Live Science Hall. An egregious oversight on my part, it’s true. It was for this reason that Martijn “Dinosaurus” Guliker reached out to me. He is…
Dispatches from Himmapaanland: Dakota
Dispatches from Himmapaanland Illustration Museums October 25, 2021Dakota the Edmontosaurus dinomummy returns to public view in a new exhibition by the North Dakota Geological Survey’s Paleontology division, which opened just over a week ago on October 16th at the North Dakota Heritage Centre. Specifically, Dakota’s exquisitely preserved right hand and tail are currently on display. I’m sincerely honoured (and more than a little struck by Imposter Syndrome) to have been commissioned for an illustration for the exhibit; my first in a museum.…
Following the stunning coup that was the Dinosaurs of China exhibition, the Nottingham Natural History Museum – located in the former stately home, Wollaton Hall, in Nottingham – has opened another temporary dinosaur display of a dramatically different nature. Whereas Dinosaurs of China was stuffed with a wide range of different fossil animals that are seldom seen in the UK (or even Europe), the museum’s latest big-ticket attraction is entirely centred on a single specimen. Of course, it does happen…
It was a coincidence, really. It so happened that my work took me to Twente, the far Eastern corner of the Netherlands, and I saw these posters along the side of the road, advertising a dinosaur exhibition at Natura Docet. Of course, Natura Docet. The local nature museum. That’s here somewhere, isn’t it? Had I not befriended its curator, Eric Mulder, a couple of years ago? I immediately wrote it down and paid a visit to the museum at the…
Please welcome Timur Sivgin to Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs. In this guest post, we’ll join him as he visits the Sauriermuseum in Frick, Switzerland and see what prehistoric treasures it holds. Take it away, Timur! First, my bio. I was born in 1998 in Switzerland to Turkish parents. I was raised on a whole lot of dinosaur-documentaries and books and my interest in the subject never really vaned. I am currently working towards my bachelor’s degree at the…
Just outside the small town of Boxtel, close to the city of Eindhoven in the South of the Netherlands, lies the Oertijdmuseum, or the Museum of Ancient Time. It’s been on my radar for some time as a destination for all things palaeontological. In 2018, the Oertijdmuseum received national media attention thanks to their acquisition of a Diplodocus skeleton. It is actually a composite of three subadult individuals, collectively named “Kirby”, after their discoverer, Hans-Jakob “Kirby” Siber. The associated information…