Headgear: The Natural History of Horns and Antlers

The Headgear exhibit will feature dramatic arrays of horns, antlers, and head mounts of a wide variety of species drawn from the collections of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, as well as 3-D diorama and video presentations illustrating the use of horns and antlers in combat. Visitors will be invited to explore some of the properties of horns and antlers by touching real specimens and comparing their own body height to the world’s largest antlers, those of the extinct Irish Elk, which span as much as 12 feet. In addition, through specimens and text, visitors will learn about the structure and function of horn-like structures in other animals from tiny beetles to massive dinosaurs.

Drawing from the collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and Harvard’s Semitic Museum, the exhibition will display artifacts fashioned from the horn and antler of hoofed animals around the world and introduce visitors to the cultural significance of horns, antlers, and animals that wear them, both real and imagined.