Texas Memorial Museum -- The University of Texas, Austin TX
N 30° 17.218 W 097° 43.934
14R E 621924 N 3351264
The Texas Memorial Museum, an outstanding Paleontology, Natural History, and Earth science museum on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin
Waymark Code: WMVQKX
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/18/2017
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The Texas Memorial Museum opened in 1936 in this beautiful building of Texas Shell Limestone designed by noted architect Paul Cret, who designed the University of Texas campus master plan in the 1930s. The Texas Memorial Museum is also Austin's first science museum.
From the museum website: (
visit link)
History of the Texas Memorial Museum
While preparing for the 1936 Texas Centennial Celebrations, politicians and other citizens realized that Texas did not have a state museum. It was not the first time this had been noticed, however. Faculty at The University of Texas at Austin sounded the alarm in the 1910s as East Coast institutions took research collections out of Texas due to the lack of facilities in Texas. “If a Texas student or professor of Geology has need to examine a specimen of Dimetrodon, found ONLY in Texas Permian beds, he would have to visit a museum in Chicago, Michigan, or the East,” wrote Professor F.L. Whitney of The University of Texas at Austin in the 1920s.
In the early 1930s, James E. Pearce, The University of Texas at Austin Chair of Anthropology, later named the museum's first director, and A. Garland Adair, department historian for the Texas American Legion, joined forces to establish a state museum. They wanted the museum to contribute to the conservation of the historic treasures of Texas and also to the educational system of the state. With this joint effort, the Texas Memorial Museum (TMM) was born. It was, at first, a state museum, but was transferred to The University of Texas at Austin museum of natural and cultural sciences. Both because it is a museum of The University of Texas at Austin and because it receives some direct state support, it remains committed to being a museum for all of Texas.
Exhibits
All exhibits are based on the 5.7 million collected specimens from research conducted at the university. Exhibits focus on prehistoric life, evolution, rocks and minerals, and Texas wildlife.
Visit the Texas Memorial Museum
Permanent exhibits include fossils and prehistoric life; native Texas wildlife; gems, minerals and meteorites; and biological evolution. Spotlighted in the museum are spectacular specimens found in Texas, including the largest flying creature ever found—the Texas Pterosaur, with a wingspan of nearly 40 feet, and a 30-foot mosasaur that swam the shallow sea that once covered most of the state."