User:Exhibits222/sandbox

The Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History is located in Hastings (Adams County), Nebraska. It is housed in an Art Deco building funded by the Works Progress Administration and completed in 1939. The Museum is under the jurisdiction of the City of Hastings, Nebraska and is run by a 7 member board. Each member serves a term of 5 years. The board has the power to adopt rules and regulations as they deem appropriate and has exclusive control of expenditures of the Museum fund. The board is responsible to the Mayor and City Council of Hastings, Nebraska. It is also supported by a Foundation to increase awareness and support, which was incorporated in 1985. The Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History preserves, displays and interprets artifacts, provides research and shares knowledge pertaining to the natural and cultural histories of Hastings, Adams County and the Great Plains of Nebraska. It was founded in 1926 by Albert Brooking and became home to many exhibits which included Brookings own personal collection of Native American artifacts, fossils and his collection of mounted birds. Albert Brookings’s bird collection was one of the largest in the United States. Brooking later requested to be buried in the basement of the museum upon his death. His wishes were granted in 1946. The Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History is home to the Adams County Historical Society, The Lied Museum and the McDonald Planetarium. It hosts local and regional exhibits and the world’s largest diorama of Sandhills and Whooping Cranes. The Museum is also a host organization for traveling exhibits and is adjacent to Fisher Fountain, near the world’s largest Navel Ammunition Depot and within a rail center in the middle of farming country.