On March 17th, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History turned 100 years old. Built with an initial budget of a paltry $3.5mm USD, the 4-acre museum was visited by 1,600 people on opening day.

In 2009, it attracted over 7.4 million visitors, surpassing the Air And Space Museum as the most popular museum in the country and the second most-visited museum in the world (after the Louvre in Paris).

To celebrate its centennial year, the museum unveiled a brand new permanent exhibit called Hall of Human Origins, which is dedicated to the discovery and understanding of human origins. The 15,000 sq.ft. hall, houses many interesting exhibits, which include 75 replica skulls and an interactive human family tree that follows 6 million years of evolution!

The video below shows a brief history of the museum through the years.

sources:washingtonpost.com, examiner.com