Places to Visit
Cushing Center at the Yale School of Medicine
Named for Yale College graduate Dr. Harvey Cushing—regarded as the father of modern neurosurgery—the exhibits at the Cushing Center include more than 400 specimen jars of patients’ brains and tumors, Cushing’s surgical illustrations, personal diaries, black and white patient photographs, memorabilia, as well as historical anatomical and medical materials. Cushing’s collection of over 15,000 volumes in science and medicine contains medical and scientific works ranging from 11th-century manuscripts through 19th-century monographs. The Cushing Center offers weekly tours of the collection that are open to the public.
For more information, visit the Cushing Center’s website.
Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium
The Leitner Observatory is a facility of the Yale Department of Astronomy, dedicated to education, public outreach, and student research. The planetarium is used to teach astronomy concepts to undergraduate classes, to support astronomy programs at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and to present planetarium shows to the general public. The planetarium and observatory are open to the public every Tuesday night and Sunday afternoon.
For more information, visit the Leitner Observatory’s website.
Marsh Botanical Garden
Sitting on eight acres, with six greenhouses comprising around a third of an acre under glass, Marsh Botanical Garden provides support for researchers, faculty, and students at Yale, as well as an informative and eye-catching experience for visitors. Marsh offers weekly tours of the greenhouses that are free and open to the public.
For more information, visit the Marsh Botanical Garden website.
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
From dinosaurs to diamonds, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History presents four billion years of Earth’s history under one roof. Its diverse collection of 13 million objects includes Egyptian mummies, samurai swords, and animals and plants from across the world. Its paleontological collections in particular rank among the most historically important fossil collections in the world. Not only can these collections be accessed by visiting the museum, but the Peabody’s substantial online catalog makes digital images of more than 163,000 specimens, artifacts, and objects available to scholars and the public around the world.
For more information, visit the Peabody Museum’s website.