Experience the dynamic forces that shape Oregon’s landscapes, climate, and ecosystems. Meet giant salmon, Ice Age sloths, and other amazing animals from across the millennia. Through interactive displays and rare specimens, you’ll go deep into Oregon’s past and join a conversation about our collective future.

Welcome to the world of medieval spirits and sorcery! Through spellbinding stories, objects, and imagery, MAGIC will take you to the roots of everyday superstitions and conjurings, delving deep into the phenomenon of magical thinking—past and present. 

Delve into Oregon’s story, from the archaeology of the First Americans to the dynamic cultures of today’s Tribes.

Combining interactive displays with world-class anthropological collections, Oregon—Where Past is Present shares 14,000 years of Oregon stories, and invites you to tell your own. Explore the galleries, try your hand at ancient weaving styles, test your skills as an archaeologist, and much more.

In the 1960s – 1990s, hundreds of young women who identified as lesbians came to Eugene. They founded organization's central to the city and provided leadership for community service agencies. They created lesbian magazines, photographs, music, films, dance performances, theater, and art. They influenced Oregon's political landscape and contributed to the larger LGBTQ movement.

Come discover stories about the Eugene lesbian community from the women who created and sustained it.

Experience the dynamic forces that shape Oregon’s landscapes, climate, and ecosystems. Meet giant salmon, Ice Age sloths, and other amazing animals from across the millennia. Through interactive displays and rare specimens, you’ll go deep into Oregon’s past and join a conversation about our collective future.

Welcome to the world of medieval spirits and sorcery! Through spellbinding stories, objects, and imagery, MAGIC will take you to the roots of everyday superstitions and conjurings, delving deep into the phenomenon of magical thinking—past and present. 

Delve into Oregon’s story, from the archaeology of the First Americans to the dynamic cultures of today’s Tribes.

Combining interactive displays with world-class anthropological collections, Oregon—Where Past is Present shares 14,000 years of Oregon stories, and invites you to tell your own. Explore the galleries, try your hand at ancient weaving styles, test your skills as an archaeologist, and much more.

In the 1960s – 1990s, hundreds of young women who identified as lesbians came to Eugene. They founded organization's central to the city and provided leadership for community service agencies. They created lesbian magazines, photographs, music, films, dance performances, theater, and art. They influenced Oregon's political landscape and contributed to the larger LGBTQ movement.

Come discover stories about the Eugene lesbian community from the women who created and sustained it.

Visit the museum during Spring Break and receive 20% off Family and Individual, new or renewing memberships. Show your Oregon Trail or other EBT/WIC card for an even deeper discount. 

Investigate Oregon's amazing fossils and ecosystems, and delve into its cultural history—from the First Americans at Paisley Caves to the dynamic cultures of today's Tribes.

Discount applies to in-person membership purchases only. Learn more about the benefits of membership on our website: https://mnch.uoregon.edu/membership

The Museum of Natural and Cultural History offers free admission on the first Friday of the month. Investigate Oregon's amazing fossils and ecosystems, and delve into its cultural history—from the First Americans at Paisley Caves to the dynamic cultures of today's Tribes. 

PLEASE NOTE: the Outliers and Outlaws exhibit will be closed for a special event on Friday.

Woven and embroidered decorative cloths are an emblematic element of a traditional Ukrainian home. Tetyana Bondarchuk-Horner was inspired to take up weaving thanks to her grandmother, who was a weaver herself. After moving to Oregon from Crimea (Ukraine), Tetyana mastered this artform as a way to reconnect with her Ukrainian heritage. She weaves traditional Ukrainian patterns as well as other, modern ones.

In a culture disinterested in women's perspectives, Eugene's lesbian community defied invisibility with women-run presses and print shops. Come hear from the women who ran the presses and discover how they provided outlets for the women's and lesbian movements.  

Moderator: Annelise Heinz Storytellers: Kate Conley, Jane Gibbons, Connie Newman, Kate Thompson

Celebrate spring with a walk and talk in and around the museum's Glenn Starlin Native Plant Courtyard guided by members of Native Plant Society of Oregon, Emerald Chapter. With more than 40 species, the courtyard offers a rich array of plant life that have supported thriving Indigenous cultures for millennia.

Over deep time, changes in landscapes and climate stimulate changes in animal diversity through adaptation, speciation, and extinction. A panel of scientists explore how understanding changes in animal diversity can help conservation efforts in mountainous regions, which provide climatic refuges during periods of global warming.

Moderator: Edward Davis Panelists: Catherine Badgley, Dana Reuter, Maya Stokes, Rebecca Terry

On Earth Day, we honor the achievements of the environmental movement and recognize the importance of ongoing ecological stewardship. Join us for an afternoon of special Walk & Talks, plus celebratory cupcakes! Walk & Talks begin at noon, 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 p.m. 

Following the devastating 2020 wildfires in Oregon, Sarah Grew collected black coals from the fires that she then used through extensive research and experimentation, to create carbon prints of recorded images of the forests themselves. Her process and its resulting prints, with their frilled edges and torn emulsion echo the way natural fire cycles can surmount devastation to provide nutrients to the soil, force a pinecone to disperse its seeds, or shape the landscape, in contrast to the extreme intensity and size of the fires that are now common. The photographs show us the beauty being lost to human negligence and the climate crisis. Printed as lantern slides, the forest memory is held captive on sheets of glass accentuating both the fragility of life and our precarious position. Hung at various heights the viewer is invited to move through the Ghost Forest, witnessing a range of natural elements.

The exhibition at the LaVerne Krause Gallery will also include Jon Bellona’s sound installation Wildfire—a 48-foot-long speaker array that plays back a wave of fire sounds at speeds of actual wildfires. An instructor of audio production in the School of Music and Dance, Bellona hopes the installation will allow viewers to embody the devastating spread of wildfires through an auditory experience.

Open hours: Mon–Thurs, 9 am–5 pm. Additional open hours Friday April 28, and during the weekend, April 29–30. Opening reception and panel discussion: “Native Ecologies” on Indigenous histories and approaches to fire management, knowledge production, and ecological stewardship Tuesday, April 25, 4–6 pm. Closing reception and CSWS 2023 Acker-Morgen Memorial Lecture by invited scholar Michelle Murphy, May 2, 4:30-6:30 pm.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Society and the UO Environment Initiative.

The "Native Ecologies" panel discussion focuses on Indigenous histories and approaches to fire management, knowledge production, and ecological stewardship. The panel is tied to the opening reception for the "Ghost Forest" exhibit and will include panelists Kari Marie Norgaard, David G. Lewis, and Joe Scott. "Ghost Forest" opening reception immediately following in the Lawrence Hall lobby.

Dr. Kari Marie Norgaard is a non-Native Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies who lives and thinks in Kalapuya lands at University of Oregon. She has also worked as a consultant for the Karuk Tribe on tribal environmental policy since 2003. Over the past fifteen years Dr. Norgaard has published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, Indigenous environmental justice, gender, and sociology of emotions. She is the author of over three dozen articles and book chapters, Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions and Everyday Life (MIT Press, 2011) and a recipient of the Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award, and together with Ron Reed, a Sociology of Emotions Recent Contribution Award. Her latest book Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Nature, Colonialism and Social Action was a 2020 finalist for the C.W. Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

David G. Lewis, PhD, is an OSU Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies & Indigenous Studies. He is a member of the Grand Ronde Tribe, descended from Takelma, Chinook, Molalla, and Santiam Kalapuya peoples. A professional consultant, educator and researcher, he teaches at local universities and colleges and contracts with tribes, local governments and nonprofits.  He has experience in archival organization, museum development, exhibit curation, traditional cultural property nomination, tribal ethnohistoric research, tribal maps, traditional ecological knowledge, and presentations to large and small gatherings. David lives at Chemeketa, where he researches and writes histories of the western Oregon tribes, published on his blog, The Quartux Journal: ndnhistoryresearch.com.

Joe Scott is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, a descendent of the Rogue River Tribes of Southern Oregon. He currently lives and studies on Kalapuya Illahee as Curriculum Director for the Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program, partnering with regional land stewards to serve tribal families to support environmental stewardship, promote food sovereignty, and explore traditional ways of knowing through the exploration of Indigenous ecological science. He is a traditional ecologist and cultural fire practitioner, and a lifelong Tribal teacher and learner.

The panel discussion and exhibit is part of  “Haunting Ecologies: The Past, Present, and Future of Feminist and Indigenous Approaches to Forest Fire,” a project sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) and UO Environment Initiative partnership.

The CSWS 2023 Acker-Morgen Memorial Lecture will be delivered by scholar Michelle Murphy as a closing event to "Ghost Forest"—an exhibition by Eugene artist Sarah Grew at the LaVerne Krause Gallery, featuring Jon Bellona’s sound installation “Wildfire.”

Murphy (they/them) is a Professor in the History Department and Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, and a technoscience studies scholar and historian of the recent past whose research concerns decolonial approaches to environmental justice; reproductive justice; Indigenous science and technology studies; infrastructures and data studies; race and science; and finance and economic practices. Murphy's current research focuses on the relationships between pollution, colonialism, and technoscience on the lower Great Lakes.  Murphy is a tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Science & Technology Studies and Environmental Data Justice, as well as Co-Director of the Technoscience Research Unit,  which hosts a lab and is home for social justice and decolonial approaches to Science and Technology Studies. They are Métis from Winnipeg, from a mixed Métis and French Canadian family.

The lecture and exhibit is part of  “Haunting Ecologies: The Past, Present, and Future of Feminist and Indigenous Approaches to Forest Fire,” a project sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) and UO Environment Initiative partnership.

The Museum of Natural and Cultural History offers free admission on the first Friday of the month. Investigate Oregon's amazing fossils and ecosystems, and delve into its cultural history—from the First Americans at Paisley Caves to the dynamic cultures of today's Tribes. 

The world of science, technology, engineering, and math is stronger when it includes diverse voices and different perspectives. Join us to celebrate a new generation of STEM superheroes with a variety of hands-on science and engineering activities for all ages. Explore the museum, learn about STEM careers, and enjoy the snacks! Activities are bilingual Spanish/English.

On-site membership promotion - 20% off all family level memberships