page_title: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Hall of African Mammals at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
context_page_description: The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large collection is comprised not only of specimens for exhibition, but also of vast research collections housed on and offsite.
  The museum is actually associated with two other museums in Greater Los Angeles: the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park and the William S. Hart Ranch and Museum in Newhall. The three museums work together to achieve their common mission: "to inspire wonder, discovery, and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds."
context_section_description: NHM opened in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, United States in 1913 as The Museum of History, Science, and Art. The moving force behind it was a museum association founded in 1910. Its distinctive main building with fitted marble walls and domed and colonnaded rotunda, is on The National Register of Historic Places. Additional wings opened in 1925, 1930, 1960, and 1976.
  The museum was divided in 1961 into The Los Angeles County Museum of History and Science and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). LACMA moved to new quarters on Wilshire Boulevard in 1965, and the Museum of History and Science was renamed The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Eventually, the museum renamed itself again, becoming The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
  In 2003, the museum began a campaign to transform its exhibits and visitor experience. The museum reopened its seismically retrofitted renovated 1913 rotunda, along with the new Age of Mammals exhibition. in 2010. Its Dinosaur Hall opened in July 2011. A new Los Angeles history exhibition, Becoming Los Angeles, opened in 2013. The outdoor Nature Gardens and Nature Lab, which explore L.A. wildlife, also opened in 2013.
caption: Hall of African Mammals
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-ZS10", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "darktable 1.4.2", "Image DateTime": "2014:05:08 14:23:36", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Rating": "1", "Image Tag 0x4749": "20", "Image ExifOffset": "658", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[34, 510333/500000, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[118, 34559/2000, 0]", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[17, 9, 16]", "GPS GPSSatellites": "5", "GPS GPSStatus": "A", "GPS GPSMeasureMode": "2", "GPS GPSDOP": "8/5", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "GPS GPSProcessingMethod": "[65, 83, 67, 73, 73, 0, 0, 0, 71, 80, 83, 0, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSAreaInformation": "[85, 78, 73, 67, 79, 68, 69, 0, 78, 0, 65, 0, 84, 0, 85, 0, 82, 0, 65, 0, ... ]", "GPS GPSDate": "2012:07:17", "Image GPSInfo": "11986", "Image DateTimeOriginal": "2012:07:17 10:18:27", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D3": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/4", "EXIF FNumber": "33/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:07:17 10:18:27", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:07:17 10:18:27", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "441/128", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "43/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4203", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2802", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "11956", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "25", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}