University Museum (Harvard University) Museum of Comparative Zoology; it was added onto in 1876 to provide space for the Peabody Museum, and was expanded several other times between then and 1913. The building is basically Italian Renaissance in its styling. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. University Museum (Harvard University) The University Museum is a historic building that houses several museums belonging to Harvard University. The building is located at 24-28 Oxford Street and 11-25 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It houses both the Harvard Museum of Natural History at 26 Oxford Street, and the Peabody Museum
Harvard University by the 19th century, Harvard had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's long tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university; Harvard was a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. A. Lawrence Lowell, who followed Eliot, further reformed the undergraduate curriculum and undertook aggressive expansion of Harvard's land holdings and physical plant. James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war.