IMNH Research and Collections
Beneath the Museum's exhibits lies a labyrinth of hallways, vast storage rooms and busy offices, all filled with the sights and sounds of discovery.
Scientists, specimens, books and papers, microscopes, cameras, and computer systems: Welcome to the realm of IMNH Research and Collections. In this university-like atmosphere, scientists delve deep into the history of our planet and the processes and peoples that shape it today.
Their enduring curiosity has led these Museum explorers to the four corners of the earth. Perhaps even to a field site in your own county.
Taken together, the IMNH collections form the most comprehensive natural history collection in Idaho and the Intermountain West. By comparing items gathered in different eras and regions, scientists learn how our world has varied across time and space.
In each area, researchers collect specimens: fossils, minerals, and rocks, plants and animals, tools and artworks. Collections care professionals have meticulously preserved, labeled, catalogued, and organized items of this kind for over 75 years at IMNH.