Now that we’re done hiking all of the state parks in Minnesota, my husband and I decided that each month in 2024 we’ll pick an interesting Minnesota attraction to visit. We didn’t actually think of this plan until January was in the rear-view mirror, so our first adventure was at the Spam Museum in February. Our March choice was to go to the Bell Museum (formerly known as the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History), which both of us had visited while we were college students back in the early 1980’s. Back then it was right on the Minneapolis campus and entry for students was free, so why not? That location closed in January of 2017 and after some arduous work and planning, the museum’s exhibits were moved into a new building on the St. Paul campus on Larpenteur Avenue and opened up in 2018 to welcome visitors once again.
I’d been to the new location once in 2018 with friends, but this time around we had a distinct advantage, having in the meantime met someone who works there, who offered to take us around and give us an unofficial guided tour.
Our friend Kyle has worked at the museum for a number of years (a number which I’ve forgotten, hence the vagueness). We couldn’t have had a better guide – he was knowledgeable, enthusiastic and full of all sorts of behind-the-scenes information that enriched our experience.
We started out looking at some of the many little displays of bones and specimens, followed by a peek at the huge wooly mammoth and giant beaver. From there we made our way to the second floor where all the dioramas are, after which Kyle left us to return to his office and we went through the Plein Air art exhibit, ending our visit with a nice sit-down at the planetarium to watch one of the shows.
The highlight of our tour was the nature dioramas, many of which are based on actual locations in Minnesota. The artwork for most of the background to the dioramas was done by the artist Francis Lee Jaques (pronounced JAY-kweez) back in the 1920’s to 1940’s. We own a couple books written by his wife Florence and illustrated by him, so we were already familiar with his beautiful artwork.
As we meandered from diorama to diorama, Kyle told us that he and his family have a goal of going to the original locations for each diorama based on a Minnesota locale. They’ve been to several so far and he showed us the photos he’d taken so we could compare them to the illustrations that Jaques had done. Very impressive!
He pointed out a few “Easter eggs” in the diorama paintings not obvious to the untrained eye: a gnome in the Cascade River diorama and a teddy bear creature in the Sand Hill Crane exhibit. My teddy bear photo didn’t turn out, but here’s the “gnome.”
He also gave us the background on how the dioramas were moved and the kind of repairs and maintenance needed to keep them in good shape. Each diorama has a small display where you can listen to the sounds made by the animals and get more information about everything in the diorama. Very cool. The elks sounded surprisingly shrill.
There’s a place where you can make a fool out of yourself trying to imitate the mating dance of the whooping crane. I complied and afterward the footage of me doing the dance was shown on the display. It was only temporary, so don’t run off to the museum hoping to see it.
The feature we watched at the planetarium was called “Totality” and was about eclipses. You’re not supposed to take photos during the show, so all I have is this nice colorful one before it started. The planetarium show was well done and very interesting, but by that time I was tired and struggled with staying awake, since the conditions were perfect for sleeping. I think I caught most of it though.
Why indeed? See the Bible for answers
If you have a suggestion for a place to go in Minnesota, let me know! We haven’t filled up our docket yet, although plans to go to Como Park and Zoo are firm.
Next: Como Zoo and Conservatory
I’ll probably feed this to the wooly mammoth in the morning.
Lynniebeemuseoday 
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