History

More than 200,000 visitors flock to Cranbrook Institute of Science each year, making it one of the region’s best known museum of natural history.

Founded in 1904 by Detroit philanthropists George and Ellen Booth, Cranbrook is an internationally renowned center for art, education and science located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Cranbrook Institute of Science is an integral part of that community, having served area schoolchildren and families since its creation in 1930.

Institute of Science Timeline
1904 Cranbrook founders George and Ellen Scripps Booth purchase 140 acres of farm and dairy land north of Birmingham, Michigan.
1922 Brookside School for children opens and includes nature walks of Cranbrook in its curriculum.
1926 Mr. & Mrs. Booth impulsively purchase 277 minerals in Denver while on a trip.
1927 Cranbrook School for boys opens. The Booths establish the Cranbrook Foundation to support their dreams for Cranbrook. A 6-inch equatorial refractor telescope is purchased for installation at Cranbrook School.
1929 First natural history displays set up at the Museum Building (now known as the Academy of Art’s Administration Building).
1930 The telescope is moved permanently to the observatory in the new Institute of Science building on Sunset Hill.
1932 Cranbrook Foundation votes to establish Institute as separate legal entity.
1936 First Institute building exhibits.
1938 Dedication of Eliel Saarinen-designed Institute building.
1945 May 20, highest one-day attendance, 3,476; two-thirds of which was attendance at the Oakland Co. War Show held at the Cranbrook Pavilion (now known as St. Dunstan’s Playhouse).
1945 Dr. Margaret Mead, world-famous anthropologist, gives lecture on The Witch Theme in Balinese Life.
1950 Famous M.I.T. professor and inventor of high-speed photography, Dr. Harold E. Edgerton, gives lecture
1954 Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, lectures at the Institute.
1955 Cranbrook's Planetarium opens.
1968 Nature Center opens.
1973 The annual Maple Syrup Festival begins.
1974 Members’ field expedition to the Mayan ruin of Chichen Itza.
1977 Dr. Mary D. Leakey, world-renowned anthropologist, lectures at Cranbrook.
1980 Model Stegosaurus installed in front of the Institute to commemorate 50th anniversary of museum.
1981 Noted ornithologist and author Roger Tory Peterson lectures at Institute.
1983 58th Cranbrook Institute of Science publication printed.
1987 Summer visitors flock to see Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs!, a temporary exhibition of life-like prehistoric creatures.
1999 New Institute addition opens with all new exhibitions.
2006 Construction finishes on new West Entrance and parking structure. See the completed West Entrance live!

Mission

Cranbrook Institute of Science is a natural history and science museum that fosters in its audiences a passion for understanding the world around them and a lifelong love of learning. Through its broadly based educational programs, its permanent and changing exhibits and its collections and research, the Institute develops a scientifically literate public able to cope with today's knowledge-based society. Moreover, Cranbrook Institute of Science generates the enthusiasm for learning about the natural world that will produce the scientists of tomorrow.