Our proud legacy dates back to 1874, when our founders incorporated our organization as the San Diego Society of Natural History. For many years, the group met in various locations, including the Hotel Cecil downtown, and it was not until 100 years ago that we first took up residence in Balboa Park. Read more.
Biologists around the world celebrate Charles Darwin as the co-originator of the fundamental pillar of modern biology. Museums, as storehouses of the diversity of life on Earth, are particularly indebted to Darwin's observant and iconoclastic mind. I heard that within our collection of roughly one million entomology specimens, we have an insect that was collected by Darwin himself. Read more.
Dr. Jon Rebman, Museum curator and the Mary & Dallas Clark Endowed Chair of Botany, recently spent 10 months in La Paz, Baja California Sur (BCS) as part of a work assignment. He lived and worked there from August 2015 to June 2016. While in La Paz, he increased binational collaboration with Mexican scientists and students, conducted extensive botanical research in the southern part of the Baja California peninsula, and wrote a new bilingual, plant field guide for the Cape region of BCS. Read more.
Joel Sartore is a photographer, speaker, author, teacher, conservationist, National Geographic fellow, and a regular contributor to National Geographic magazine. As founder of the Photo Ark project, Sartore has visited 40 countries in his quest to create a photo archive of global biodiversity. Here, we chat with Sartore about this incredible project and his love of photography and wildlife. Read more.
We are off and running with the Social Stories Spectrum Project meetups. On January 19 after weeks of planning, sorting of details, and suppressing our own nervous energy, we finally got to participate in our first meetup with nine incredible high-functioning young adults with autism. Read more.
In this blog post, scientific illustrator Amy H. Gross discusses her passion for science and art and how sketching illustrations of local species keeps her interest in natural history alive and well. Read more.
It was an awesome and humbling experience hiking in Baja California with expert biologists. I felt as if I had walked into a high school reunion: everything looked vaguely familiar, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't summon up names for the plants and animals. However, for the scientists walking on the same trail, everything was an old and familiar friend. Read more.
The Museum’s expertise and interest covers one of the world’s most stunning and biologically fascinating ecological areas. When it was suggested that I visit the Baja California Peninsula to more fully understand our bioregion, no arm-twisting was necessary. Read more.
The Social Stories Spectrum Project has officially kicked off. Project partners and advisors met for the first time last week to work through the details of launching the project, learn about autism, and just try to get our heads wrapped around how to proceed in general. This project is not only new to and innovative for the museum community, it has literally never been done before. With that comes a certain level of intensity in terms of the amount of work that needs to be done to see it through, but that is welcomed with open arms. Read more.
When December rolled around, we lighted the agave, topped Al with his hat, and the holiday season was upon us. All of Balboa Park spruced up for the season’s grand kickoff, December Nights. Read more.