The Orton Geological Museum, Ohio’s first natural history museum, opened to the public in August 1874. With the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, the museum enters its 150th year of operation. We are celebrating the sesquicentennial with new exhibits in the museum gallery, and a special exhibition in Thompson Library. "The Orton Geological Museum, 1874-2024: A 150-year Retrospective" is a curated assortment of rarely exhibited fossils, rocks, minerals, photographs, manuscripts, publications, and artwork that chronicle the museum’s history from its earliest days through the present. The exhibition opens in Thompson Library on August 20, 2024, and runs through February 25, 2025.

For the first time, the public is offered a glimpse into the origins of the State of Ohio’s geologic collection, the conceptualization of Orton Hall as a museum building, and the early growth of the museum in concert with the Geological Survey of Ohio. Visitors have an opportunity to see the first specimen cataloged at The Ohio State University. Some of the eminent scientists who played major roles in the development of the collection, from 1874 through 2024, are highlighted in the exhibition.

Other features of this special exhibition are spectacular minerals, economic minerals and rocks, building stones, fossils from renowned localities in Ohio, dinosaur and mastodon fossils, and geologic specimens from Antarctica.

Visit the University Libraries' webpage for more information about the sesquicentennial exhibition.