{"id":2,"date":"2025-11-24T02:09:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T02:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-uwsp-multi.pantheonsite.io\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-05-26T19:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T19:00:06","slug":"homepage","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Olson Museum of Natural History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Get Involved<\/div>
\nVIEW HOURS <\/i><\/a>\n\n\n\nSupport Our Work <\/i><\/a>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

DISCOVER WHAT’S NEW AT THE OLSON MUSEUM<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Olson Museum of Natural History is excited to welcome visitors into our newly reopened spaces! Our Gift Shop, Discovery Room, and a preview version of our Rock & Fossil Exhibit are now open for you to explore. While this geology and paleontology exhibit space is still being completed, you can already enjoy hands-on learning, beautiful specimens, and unique items inspired by natural history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our beloved dioramas and wildlife displays are currently undergoing extensive restoration in our new Science Building home\u2014thanks to the generous support of UW-Stevens Point alumni Don and Judi Olson. These favorite features will return soon, and we can\u2019t wait to share the next phase of the museum\u2019s transformation with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Museum Gift Shop<\/h3>

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The Olson Museum of Natural History Gift Shop is ready to open! Our Museum Gift Shop offers a wealth of nature-related gifts, books, educational toys, apparel, jewelry, stationery and much more.\nYou can shop responsibly knowing that the store proceeds help fund exhibits, programming, and research at the Olson Museum of Natural History.<\/div>
\n\nAbout the Gift Shop <\/i><\/a>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Education Programs<\/h3>

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The Olson Museum of Natural History presents monthly programs that engage kids and families. Our educational Junior Science programs are presented by museum education interns at no cost. <\/div>
\n\nFamily Events <\/i><\/a>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Save the Date!<\/h5>

Collection Crawl ’26<\/h3>

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Every spring, we welcome the public to view our museum specimens from all of our UWSP collections. Learn about the Collection Crawl activities you can enjoy with our staff and volunteers! This year’s event will be held April 11th!<\/div>
\n\nEvent Schedule <\/i><\/a>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

OUR MISSION<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our mission is to provide an exhibition of the collection for purposes of instruction, research and community education. The ethnographic and natural science research collections reflect the diversity in nature and among human cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mission of the Olson Museum of Natural History is to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Ensure the professional curation of the Museum\u2019s collections and foster their growth
\u2022 Facilitate access to these resources for research
\u2022 Aid in the dissemination of scientific and ethnographic information
\u2022 Encourage the integration of Museum resources in UWSP student instruction and research
\u2022 Serve as a teaching and learning resource for schools and the regional public community<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Discovery Room<\/h3>

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A space for educational tools, sensory activities. This is an all-ages museum space for hands-on science! Some of the opportunities include touch tables, microscopes, clay, and fossil rubbings.<\/div>
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Rock and Fossil Room<\/h3>

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The Rock and Fossil Room underwent a complete transformation from its old displays. We\u2019ve curated these new rocks and fossil displays from around the world to help people learn about the story of the earth.\nOur displays are organized to help visitors learn about the beginning of the earth, volcanoes, the rock cycle, gems and minerals, and the evolution of life. Our fossil displays are from the Paleozoic to the Holocene, and include authentic fossils and replicas. <\/div>
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ANNUAL Collection Crawl <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Collection Crawl <\/a>is the Museum\u2019s annual open house each spring. Participants can spend hours visiting collection sites around campus and engaging in science games and activities with our staff and volunteers. Ask questions and participate in fun activities at each stop. The Blocher Planetarium<\/strong> will feature 5 shows during the event.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DISCOVER WHAT’S NEW AT THE OLSON MUSEUM The Olson Museum of Natural History is excited to welcome visitors into our newly reopened spaces! Our Gift Shop, Discovery Room, and a preview version of our Rock & Fossil Exhibit are now open for you to explore. While this geology and paleontology exhibit space is still being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/olson-museum-of-natural-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}