The Sternberg Museum houses collections of fossil animals and plants, geological objects, educational resources, and historical and archeological materials as well as collections of modern preserved plants, insects, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Most of the collections are from the Great Plains and adjacent areas, and most resulted from research and thus have high scientific value. If you are interested in studying paleontology, visit FHSU's Department of Geosciences. Also, the Biological Sciences Department provides students opportunities to study the natural history of contemporary plants and animals.

A majority of the research collections of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History are now housed in the new facility. The new facility has increased the space available for each collection and for graduate student research. Most of the teaching collections will remain on the main campus.

Archaeology and Ethnology Collection
The Archaeological and Ethnological Collections consist of a few thousand specimens. This collection contains a rich variety of specimens from the Great Plains region. The Historical Collection contains several thousand objects relating to the settlement of the frontier at Hays and the development of Fort Hays State University. Among the most valuable objects in the collection are 1000 historic photographs dating back to the of settlement of the Great Plains and highlighting the activities of George Custer, William (Buffalo Bill) Cody, William (Wild Bill) Hickock, and others who lived in the city of Hays. Currently the majority of these specimens are in storage. Some items are on loan and displayed at the Ellis County Historical Society.

Botany Collection
The Botany Collections include a very large research collection of preserved fungi (more than 15,000 labeled packets), and an historically valuable research herbarium, the Elam Bartholomew Herbarium with nearly 32,000 pressed plants.

Education Collection
The Education collection consists of several thousand specimens curated into our education division and are used exclusively for education of youth and adults.

Entomology Collection
The Entomology Collection contains approximately 70,000 insects, representing nearly all North American groups. This collection currently emphases moths and butterflies.

Geology Collection
The Geological Collection consists of several thousand specimens including examples of minerals plus at least part of 85% of the meteorites that have been found in Kansas.

Herpetology Collection
The Herpetology Collection consists of 15,000 specimens of preserved amphibians and reptiles that are used exclusively in graduate education and research. Many are voucher specimens mentioned in scientific publications.

Ichthyology Collection
The Ichthyology Collection includes more than 100,000 fishes, most collected in Kansas and adjacent states under contract with State and Federal agencies. This is the most rapidly growing collection in the museum.

Mammalogy Collection
The Sternberg Museum’s collection of mammals was begun by Dr. Charles A. Ely (a member of the Biology faculty at Fort Hays State University), who prepared specimen number 1 (a shrew from Colorado) in 1960. Ely was an ornithologist, and he therefore willingly relinquished curatorial responsibility for mammals to the next new faculty member hired by the Department of Biological Sciences in 1962. That new faculty member and curator was Dr. Eugene D. Fleharty.

Over the next nine years, Fleharty developed the nucleus of an outstanding assemblage of mammals. He used the collection as a teaching resource in a variety of courses, and he produced a phenomenal group of students who he took on collecting trips throughout the western United States and elsewhere. As of summer of 1971, the collection of mammals had grown to 8,770 specimens.

Fleharty (who also was curator of amphibians and reptiles) use curatorship of the collection of mammals as a carrot when the Department of Biological Sciences hired Dr. Jerry R. Choate in 1971. Choate immediately assumed responsibility for the collection, and important research materials from all regions of the United States where Fleharty had not worked as well as from southern Mexico soon were added. Choate’s research focus was the Great Plains, and under his curatorship the collection became one of the premier mammal collections in the Great Plains region.

Today, the Sternberg Museum’s collection of mammals houses about 38,000 specimens and is regarded within the scientific discipline of mammalogy as one of the best medium-sized scientific resources of mammals in North America. Choate remains curator, and other persons associated with the collection now include curator emeritus Fleharty and adjunct curators Dr. Don Kaufman, Dr. Glennis Kaufman, and Dr. Elmer Finck.

Natural History Exhibit Collection
The Natural History Exhibit Collection consists of a few thousand specimens prepared for use in exhibits although most of the specimens are now in storage. Natural history dioramas and full body mounts of a brown bear and a polar bear are among the most popular exhibits in the museum for children.

Ornithology Collection
The Ornithology Collection contains 4,500 specimens and is synoptic and historically valuable. It is used extensively in graduate education and research.

Paleontology Collection
The Paleontological collections of fossil animals and plants contain nearly 3 million specimens including 21 type specimens. Specimens include outstanding materials from the Cretaceous Period (roughly 88 million years ago when the Great Plains was covered by a shallow sea) and from various times during the Cenozoic Era (a period of time extending from the Cretaceous to the present). Many of the most spectacular fossils will be on exhibit in the new museum, including the famous fish-with-in-a-fish and various marine reptiles such as mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, and flying reptiles (pterosaurs). It is noteworthy that the Sternberg Museum's collection of flying reptiles is one of the most important collections in the world in terms of quality of specimens.
 
The paleobotanical research collections contains several thousand fossils of plants plus the world's largest collection (nearly 500,000 specimens) of fossil grass seeds including numerous type specimens. The fossil plants represent several time periods on the Great Plains, whereas most of the fossil grass seeds are from the late Tertiary.

History Collections
Currenlty many of the items in our history collections are on display in the exhibition "Museum Memories: A Cenntinial Exhibition".