Get behind the display case at a five-million-specimen insect collection
Five million insects, most of them not on show
A university entomology collection on the Colorado State University campus, with a public display room and tours of the collection behind it.
Why it's unique
The C.P. Gillette Museum holds roughly five million arthropod specimens across about 60,000 species, including fifty primary types, and is the largest collection of Colorado arthropods anywhere. Ten thousand specimens a year are still being added.
It is a working research collection rather than a museum with a research arm, which changes what a visit is. The display room is a small fraction of the holdings; the collection proper is cabinets, and getting into them means a guided tour with the people who curate it.
Before you go
The display room is walk-in on weekdays and takes about ten minutes. The collection behind it is the reason to come and is not walk-in: email the museum ahead and ask for a tour, which is the difference between a corridor of cases and an afternoon.
It is on a working campus, so parking is the usual university problem. Term time gives you a better chance of someone being available to show you round than the summer does.