The Collections Gallery includes a sampling of objects from the museum's collections.

Special Projects in the Collections Gallery

Making a Minnesota Mummy
Check out our chicken mummy—Nefertweety. She's being prepared in much the same way that the ancient Egyptians mummified dead people and animals. Watch photo and video updates of the mummification process at work.

Interact

Collectors' Corner
Kids, start your collections! At the Collectors' Corner, you can bring in two natural objects you've discovered and trade them for other things—rocks, skulls, shells, or insects. Earn points for what you know about your discovery, and spend those points on specimens or save them to use later.

At the Collectors' Corner you will also find:

• Minnesota rocks, minerals, and fossils
• Skulls and bones
• Sands from around the world and microscopes to examine them up close

Gallery Highlights

Fossils from South Carolina: These 28 million year-old fossils include a 20-foot crocodile, a toothed whale, a dugong, a sea turtle, and micro-fossils picked from beach sand.

Egyptian Mummy: Given to the Science Museum in 1925, the Egyptian mummy ranks as a favorite among visitors.

Questionable Medical Devices: Inventions that claimed to cure any number of chronic diseases or treat psychological disorders, this exhibit includes a phrenology machine, and a vibratory chair.

Learn More About Collections

Science Museum Collections Online
Start exploring our collections! Please visit often for updates as we continue to add more selections from the Ethnology, Archaeology, Biology and Paleontology departments. Browse Our Collections

Collections Services
The mission of the Science Museum of Minnesota's Collections Services Department (Collections Management and Conservation) is to ensure the physical integrity of, protect and maintain the intellectual content for, and provide access to the collections and their documentation for museum staff, outside researchers, and the inquiring public.

Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
The questionable medical devices in the Science Museum's Collections gallery were donated by Bob McCoy. McCoy was the curator of The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis. After he retired the museum closed in 2002. To learn more about the devices and about Bob McCoy, visit the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices online.