ABSTRACT
Natural history museums comprise an extremely diverse institutional lineage, and their approaches reflect this diversity. Thus, while the range of operating environments favor a wide selection of social, entrepreneurial, and even curatorial strategies, they share common internal structures developed around collections stewardship, research, and public engagement. More recently, they have added to this brief by engaging in conservation activities that also protect biodiversity in situ. While natural history museums are busy innovating, stewarding natural heritage collections, and being at the forefront of addressing some of the world's major issues. Our greatest opportunity to achieve and maintain relevance lies in authentically connecting our future to the needs and drivers of our community. For starters, a course in natural history museology is cross-listed with museum studies and natural sciences, giving students from both fields an opportunity and incentive to participate.
