Louisiana State Museum of Natural History

Louisiana State University Museum of Natural History

Adopted in 1999

The Museum of Natural Science, located in Foster Hall, includes nine major dioramas depicting the flora and fauna of North America and examples of Louisiana's diverse animal life.

Find information about research and collections, educational programs, public exhibits, and the latest museum news. The LSU Museum of Natural Science was founded in 1936, when its first director, George H. Lowery, Jr., assembled a few study specimens of birds in a classroom in Audubon Hall. Since its move to Murphy J. Foster Hall in 1950, the museum has continued to expand and is currently one of the nation's largest natural history museums, with holdings of over 2.5 million specimens. As the only comprehensive research museum in the south-central United States, the LSU Museum of Natural Science fulfills a variety of scientific and educational roles, including generation of new knowledge in the fields of zoology, archaeology, and paleontology through scholarly research, based primarily on natural history collections, collection and preservation of research specimens as a resource for study of the earth's natural history, education of graduate and undergraduate students in academic areas that are most effectively taught in the museum setting, education of the public by means of exhibits and lecture programs, and assistance to local citizens, wildlife officials, and forensic specialists through identification and consultation services.