Work has begun on a new, permanent habitat for the beloved lions at the Museum of Natural History.

Harry & Josephine have been waiting for a permanent exhibit for nearly 80 years. Brought to the US from Africa in the late 1920s, they lived in the City Park Zoo until their deaths in the 1930s.

Nationally famed explorer and taxidermist Homer Dill prepared and mounted the lions here, where they became part of the UIMNH collections, patiently awaiting habitat...until now.

Your help from our Lio-rama Goldrush Campaign in 2016 paired with recent donations from the McCall family has brought this long-time-coming project to life.

Our research collections professionals started the work of cleaning and moving the lions from their holding case earlier this week. Now, our exhibit preparators begin the work of expanding their case in preparation for a very exciting guest muralist (we'll share the deets soon!) to get to work before the lions are introduced to their final resting place - a proper exhibit habitat.

Theirs will be the first permanent exhibit with a new mural to be installed in more than 30 years in our museum. We couldn't be more excited to share this transformation with our campus and community later this year. Stay tuned!