The tarantula hawk, found in Utah, is a page out of a collection of horror stories. Beautiful, huge, painful, and parasitic - it's a wasp that tops the Sting Pain Index and finds its way into NHMU's "The Power of Poison" exhibit.
We don't often associate arachnids and maternal care, but our Invertebrate Collections Manager, Christy Bills, shares a story about an intimidating spider found here in Utah that might just melt your heart.
Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany is a high-elevation evergreen found throughout Utah and the western U.S. The fact that it's actually a part of the rose family is just one of its remarkable traits.
A new addition to our Collections Wall: a very large Goshute burden basket made sometime in the late 1800s - early 1900s. Learn about it's function and provenance.
Congratulations to Jesse D. Johnson for winning Best of Show in the October 2016 Indian Art Market. Here is a description of the artist and his work in his own words.
Congratulations to Susan Hudson, who won 3rd place at the Indian Art Market in October 2016. Here is a description of her work as told by the artist herself.
No one knows for sure when Utah’s most famous rock art – the Great Gallery found in Horseshoe Canyon – was created, but we pay homage to it and to the WPA-commissioned art piece hanging in our 1st floor, behind the Admissions desk.
The Great Gallery is one of the most significant pictograph panels in the American Southwest, yet archaeologists have struggled over when it was created and what it could mean.
![[image] The Dracula of Wasps](/sites/default/files/TarantulaHawk.jpg)
![[image] From a Utah Hike: A Carolina Wolf Spider Story](/sites/default/files/CarolinaWolfSpider-blogheader.jpg)
![[image] Jar of Snakes](/sites/default/files/Jar_of_snakes-blogheader.jpg)
![[image] Mountain Mahogany: One Tough Rose](/sites/default/files/MtnMahogany-atsummit-blogheader.jpg)
![[image] Goshute Burden Basket](/sites/default/files/Burden Basket Side View-blogheader.jpg)
![[image] Indian Art Market 2016: Jesse D. Johnson, Best of Show Winner](/sites/default/files/Jesse_Johnson_Best_of_show_blogheader2_0.jpg)
![[image] Indian Art Market 2016: Jeremy Rosetta, 2nd Place Winner](/sites/default/files/Jeremy_Rosetta_2nd_place.jpg)
![[image] Indian Art Market 2016: Susan Hudson, 3rd Place Winner](/sites/default/files/Susan_Hudson_3rd_place.jpg)
![[image] NHMU's Barrier Canyon Mural](/sites/default/files/blurredfigure-blogheader.jpg)
![[image] Bold Figures, Blurred History: The Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon](/sites/default/files/BarrierCanyon-panoramic-blogheader1.jpg)