Editorial: Museum honor

The KU Natural History Museum has been honored as among the best in the nation.

The naming of the Kansas University Natural History Museum as the best of its kind at a public university in the United States is a well-deserved honor.

People familiar with the museum probably aren’t surprised to see it atop the list compiled by Best College Reviews, which ranked KU just behind the private university museums at Harvard, Drexel and Yale.

The KU Natural History Museum is housed in Dyche Hall, named for Lewis Lindsay Dyche, whose exploration and collecting provided the basis for some of the museum’s most popular exhibits.

For more than a century, the museum has attracted school groups and other visitors to view its exhibits or participate in educational programs. It consistently is listed as one of the state’s most popular tourist attractions. Museums on the Best College Reviews list had to be open to the public and were ranked on several criteria including the number of artifacts and specimens in their colleges, opportunities at the museum for college students and community involvement. Again, it’s no surprise that the KU museum would excel in all of those categories.

The museum’s exhibits, programs and research make an ongoing contribution to Lawrence and the state. Congratulations to director Leonard Krishtalka and the rest of the Natural History Museum staff on this notable recognition.