More from inside the National Natural History Museum

When you enter the Museum there is a large Elephant and you can look up to see all the floors and signs with their exhibits. Then you turn and see the dinosaur skeletons. Everything is well lit, there are guides and guards everywhere, the laughter of children, and adults captivated at every turn

Copper, White Pine Mine, Ontonagon County Michigan

This sheet of nearly pure copper was once sandwiched between layers of shale. It crumpled when miners blasted the rock. Bits of dark shale remain attached to the copper, which also bears the imprint of water ripples preserved in the shale.

Quartz   Otjua mine, Karibib, Namibia

Several crystals grew together and from this 590-kg – 1300lb quartz giant. Each crystal has the six sided pencil shape typical of quartz

The Hope Diamond (picture does not do it justice)

The Cullinan Blue Diamond Necklace/Brooch total weight of 5.57 carats

Sandstone Concretion – Fontainebleau, France

This natural sandstone formation is made of quartz – the same mineral as the giant crystal. Here, tiny crystals of quartz cemented together grains of quartz sand

The Eocene’s Big Bird Diatryma Steini, Cast

Early Eocene (55-50 Million years ago) Wyoming

Fossil beaver in the natural cast of its own burrow

23 million years old - Nebraska

Douglas fir about 12 million years old

Oak about 12 million years old