The Barnum Museum of Natural History was built in 1883-84 by the late Phineas T. Barnum, who gave the College a fund for its maintenance, and for the addition of two wings to the central building. One of these wings has been erected. In addition to laboratory rooms, it affords space for the display of the mineralogical and geological collections.

The College is also indebted to Mr. Barnum for the larger portion of its zoological collection. This serves to illustrate all groups of the animal kingdom, and is especially rich in skeletons and mounted skins of mammals, the whole being well adapted for the purposes of instruction. The botanical collection consists of a herbarium containing a representation of the flora of New England, besides many specimens from Europe and the southern and western states. The geological collection contains representives of the various types of rocks, as well as of fossils from all formations. The mineralogical collection embraces fine examples of most of the specimens. The department library of Natural History, numbers over twenty-five hundred volumes and more than six thousand pamphlets.

The laboratories and lecture-rooms of the department of Geology are in the main Museum building. The geological laboratory is provided with petrological microscopes, instruments for making rock sections, and other instruments. The mineralogical laboratory possesses the apparatus necessary for the determination of minerals, the analysis of ores, and assay work. The biological laboratories are in the wing. The laboratory for elementary work is furnished with all necessary facilities, while the laboratories (two in number) for advanced and research work have all the appliances needed for investigation on the lines of anatomy, histology, and embryology.