Carnegie Museum of Natural History
One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
This slender-snouted crocodile skull in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Alcohol House was used to determine that each African region had a unique crocodile species. You can see this skull and its story on display at the new We Are Nature. Look for the Alcohol House media interactive in the gallery!
This post was originally posted on our curatorial assistant’s Instagram, which features specimens in the museum’s historic Alcohol House.
Curatorial Assistant Kaylin Martin gives us a brief tour of one of the museum’s fascinating hidden collections, the Alcohol House— home to more than 200,000 reptile and amphibian specimens that are jarred and preserved in alcohol.
Ask a Scientist is a new short video series where we ask our research staff questions about the millions of amazing objects and specimens stored in our collection. Tune in on YouTube, and submit your own questions via Twitter @CarnegieMNH.
In a historic building at our museum, we have 1,223 species of amphibians and 2,467 species of reptiles in the collection. This building is called the Alcohol House because most of the specimens are stored in 70% ethanol alcohol.
These jars in in our historic Alcohol House contain the contents of the stomachs of snakes that were collected for scientific study.
The Alcohol House is home to more than 250,000 amphibian and reptile specimens from around the world and is named for the 70% ethanol alcohol that preserve them.
This jar in our Alcohol House dates back to the 1890s, when the museum was first founded by steel tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
The Alcohol House is home to more than 250,000 amphibian and reptile specimens from around the world and is named for the 70% ethanol alcohol that preserve them.
The Section of Amphibians and Reptiles at Carnegie Museum of Natural History holds approximately the 10th largest collection of amphibians and reptiles in North America in the historic Alcohol House.
