Cofrin Center for Biodiversity

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Richter Museum of Natural History

The Richter Museum of Natural History contains one of Wisconsin's most significant collections of animal specimens for scientific research and education. The collection is built around an extraordinary gift from Carl Richter, a former resident of Oconto, Wisconsin, and one of the state's most prominent ornithologists. Richter's specialty was birds and bird eggs, and today the Museum ranks among the 10 largest oological (egg) collections in North America.

Currently the Museum is housed in Mary Ann Cofrin Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Specimens are catalogued and stored in metal cabinets for long term preservation. Access to this scientific collection is available to researchers and to students in UW Green Bay courses such as Ornithology and Mammalogy. The collection also serves as a repository for specimens obtained by biologists and resource managers. Together with voucher specimens from UW-Green Bay researchers, these additions have led to a nearly complete collection of western Great lakes vertebrates and an outstanding resource for scientific reference and teaching.

The Museum sponsors numerous research projects on the fauna of northeastern Wisconsin. Ongoing studies include biological inventories of the Point Sauble Nature Reserve in Lower Green Bay, surveys of colonial nesting birds (gulls, terns, herons, egrets, cormorants, and pelicans) on Green Bay, research on breeding and migrant raptors, analysis of bird and bat mortality at newly constructed wind power facilities in Kewaunee County, and an investigation of mammal subfossils from the Brussels Hill Pit Cave in Door County, Wisconsin.

Museum Policies

The Richter museum is primarily a research museum and is not usually open to the public. However, there are several display cases in the hallway outside the museum and in the "Gathering Room" across from the main CCB offices that feature specimens from the museum and herbarium collections and are open anytime Mary Ann Cofrin Hall is open. The curators also conduct a number of tours for groups, such as college and K-12 classes, naturalists, teachers, Learning in Retirement, civic clubs etc. If you would like to arrange a tour of the museum for your class or group please contact Curator Tom Erdman.

Researchers and faculty that would like to use the museum for research or are requesting specimens for study or to use in classes should contact Curator Tom Erdman at the address below for more information.

Thomas Erdman, Richter Museum Curator
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Dept. of Natural and Applied Sciences
Green Bay, WI 54311
920-465-2713 / erdmant@uwgb.edu
fax: 920-465-2143

Biodiversity Topics: Introduction . Plants . Animals . Mammals . Birds . Reptiles & Amphibians . Arthropods . Spiders . Insects