When the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History opened in 1910 it had nearly 10 million objects, moved in with the assistance of horse-drawn carts. Today it is home to nearly 130 million artifacts and specimen that help fulfill its mission of helping us understand the natural world and our place in it.
Larger than life exhibits include 11-ton African Bush Elephant, 52-foot Mega-toothed shark, massive skeleton of a gray whale, tropical butterfly pavilion, humongous dinosaur fossils, and an insect zoo.