The Orton Geological Museum is administered within the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
The Orton Museum maintains a large collection of fossils, rocks, minerals, meteorites, and building stones, many of them of historic as well as scientific importance. They reflect a long tradition of geological and palaeontological research at Ohio State. The museum’s collection also has grown through the acquisition of collections from other institutions and individual collectors.
Collection highlights
Highlights of the collection include many of the earliest described Paleozoic and Mesozoic fishes from North America, including species crucial to studies of early vertebrate evolution; Carboniferous plants including some of the earliest reported from Ohio and Illinois; many of the first fishes and tetrapods described from Carboniferous coal in Ohio; numerous Paleozoic microfossils, including conodonts, which are important for global stratigraphic correlation; a rich array of Paleozoic arthropods; and many of the plant and animal fossils described from the Antarctic Peninsula and the Transantarctic Mountains.
The Orton Museum collection is a resource for geological and palaeontological research. The museum plays an active role in teaching at the K–12 and university levels. It also maintains a model program of museum-community outreach.
History
The museum was founded in 1874. It is housed in Orton Hall, a 1893 building that was the first museum building constructed in Ohio. Orton Hall and the Orton Geological Museum are both named for Edward Orton (1828–1899), a geologist and the first president of The Ohio State University. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
