History:

Conner Museum traces its beginnings back to 1894, when Charles R. Conner, president of the Board of Regents, persuaded the state of Washington to donate its exhibits from the Chicago World's Fair to the fledgling Washington Agricultural College. Those first exhibits were a mixture of several disciplines including anthropology, geology, biology and,of course, agriculture. Over time and through the influence of successive curators, the museum's theme gradually narrowed and focused on vertebrate animals. Today the museum's exhibits display over 700 mounts of birds and mammals and the scientific collection used by researchers houses over 65,000 specimens.