At 70 years old, most think in terms of slowing down. Not the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster, now celebrating its 70th year and looking forward to the next 70 years, with such trailblazing programs in place now as Biomimicry—the practice of emulating nature’s survival solutions to solve today’s human challenges.

“Nature is the pathway to science and invention, our future direction here,” says Bob Dwyer, Museum president and executive director. “At its core lies a profound recognition: nature is the catalyst for change. While we’ve long taught about the wonders of plants and animals, our mission now extends beyond mere education to emphasize what we can learn from them. Our goal is clear—to inform our visitors on how the wisdom of nature can safeguard a sustainable environment.”

“Nature is the pathway to science and invention, our future direction here,” says Bob Dwyer, Museum president and executive director. “At its core lies a profound recognition: nature is the catalyst for change. While we’ve long taught about the wonders of plants and animals, our mission now extends beyond mere education to emphasize what we can learn from them. Our goal is clear—to inform our visitors on how the wisdom of nature can safeguard a sustainable environment.”

On the cusp of its anniversary, Cape Cod Museum of Natural History has also expanded on its direction with the acquisition of the Thornton W. Burgess Society/Green Briar Nature Center in Sandwich, by a unanimous vote of both boards. Founded in 1976, the center sits on two and a half acres off bucolic Route 6A, surrounded by 57 acres of protected land with magnificent springs, hills and walking trails.

Thornton Burgess, a 20th century renowned naturalist, conservationist and author, helped lead the effort in this country to support the cause of conservation and preservation. For more than a half century, Burgess wrote and spoke about the mysteries and marvels of nature as a driving force in our lives and this nation. In all, Burgess, one of America’s most prolific writers, wrote more than 170 books and more than 15,000 newspaper columns, many of them with a focus on teaching young children through his celebrated characters Peter Rabbit and his friends: Jimmy Skunk, Grandfather Frog, Johnny Chuck, Sammy Jay, Reddy Fox, Hooty Owl, and Old Mother West Wind and many others.

The union of the Thornton W. Burgess Society/Green Briar Nature Center and Cape Cod Museum of Natural History brings together two of the most accomplished nature writers and advocates in literary history—Burgess and the late John Hay, co-founder and president of the Museum for a quarter century, the author of 18 celebrated nature books, a Harvard poet laureate, and recipient of the celebrated John Burroughs Medal for nature writing,

But to grasp the future, one must understand the past. 

The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History was founded in 1954 on the terra firma of the young child in all of us. “Theirs will be the eyes and the listening ears in the woods and on the shores of Cape Cod,” wrote Hay in the Museum’s first mission statement. “To be within nature,” counseled Hay, “requires one to respect nature’s own values on which you can build and strengthen your own vision.”

Hay’s raison d’être is still imbedded as the Museum has grown over the years—a divining rod of listening ears. “The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History’s purpose was not so much to bring people in, as it was to lead them out,” wrote the founders—two mothers, a teacher, a potter, a doctor’s wife, and an author. The initial concept was developed by two women—Kathryn Berrien, then head of the Dennis PTA, and Ruth Francis Clark, wife of the late Admont Clark, the Museum’s first president. According to Museum history, they passed a hat, each contributing $3.14 for starters. And so with $22, the Cape Cod Junior Museum was established, later to be called the Cape Cod Junior Museum of Natural History, and finally the CapeCod Museum of Natural History. Initially, no land, no building, no working capital, no paid staff.

“Instead of starting with a building and filling it, we started with the out-of-doors—marshes, streams, land, ponds, and dunes around us,” noted Hay years ago. “We felt it was essential that nature provide the foundation and inspiration for the Museum.”

The foundation indeed took root over time. The Museum is now housed in a 17,000 square foot building on its own 80-acre site, abutted by 320 acres of Town of Brewster and Brewster Conservation Trust land. The Museum building has two floors of exhibits detailing how Cape Cod was sculpted over thousands of years by the power of the sea. Exhibits include exploration of Native American history; native animals and habitats; nature films; a lecture hall, and trailblazing workshops on a variety of topics offered throughout the year. In the basement of the Museum building is one of New England’s finest aquariums in its weight class. The aquarium was recently ranked tenth “most beautiful” in the nation by Aquarium Store Depot, a national website founded by aquarium expert Mark Valderrama. In all, 175 public aquariums were assessed.

Outside the Museum building are smaller adjacent outbuildings that provide nature summer programs for children. Nearby is the impressive Butterfly House. On approach, one walks through the Pollinator Path filled with multi- colored plants such as Orange Butterfly Weed, Yarrow, Purple Coneflower, and others. The Butterfly House contains some of the most beautiful butterfly species such as Monarchs, Painted Ladies, Swallowtails, Red Admirals, and more—all up close and personal.

Today, nowhere is the Museum’s founding vision more apparent than the outlook from its Marshview Room. The view overlooking the marsh is still stunning. In a single frame one can drink in the essence of Cape Cod: an upland forest in full bloom in summer, a salt marsh teeming with fiddler crabs and mummichogs, a dune system with sand the color of snow, and Cape Cod Bay itself—a glistening expanse of tidal flats that run to the lip of the sea at low tide. The scene is bounded to the north by the brackish waters of Paine’s Creek and to the south by Quivet Creek.

Beyond a soft green carpet of salt marsh lies picturesque and historic Wing’s Island, named after Brewster’s first English settler John Wing. The 140-acre preserve is one of the earliest Paleoindian settlements in the country. Years ago, then Museum archeologist, Harvard-educated Dr. Fred Dunford uncovered artifacts of human occupation dating back 8,000 years. The island is home to indigenous species of upland plant and wildlife, including white tail deer and a colony of red foxes. The Town of Brewster owns Wing’s Island, which hosts an active bird banding program supported by the Museum. A one-mile trail leads from the Museum, across the marsh at low tide, and out to Cape Cod Bay, past patches of high- bush blueberry, chokeberry, sea lavender, and beach plum.

The John Wing trail is a perfect walk for the family, as is the nearby quarter-mile North Trail, which wends along the perimeter of the salt marsh; and the half-mile South Trail, which meanders through a cattail marsh, a cranberry bog, over a herring run and into a grove of Beech trees.

But no one here is resting on laurels.

Which brings us back to the future—to Biomimicry, NASA and beyond. Biomimicry is an intriguing word for most. The Biomimicry Institute defines it as: “A practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges—and find hope.”

More to the point, says Dwyer, The John Wing trail is a perfect walk for the family, as is the nearby quarter- mile North Trail, which wends along the perimeter of the salt marsh; and the half-mile South Trail, which meanders through a cattail marsh, a cranberry bog, over a herring run and into a grove of Beech trees. quoting from Biomimicry research, “Glimpse into biomimicry’s potential and you will discover remarkable inventions: from the evolution of the bullet train in Japan, adorned with a sleek, beak- shaped nose akin to the Kingfisher bird, significantly reducing noise, enhancing efficiency, and conserving energy; similarly, wind turbines, modeled after the fluid dynamics of a whale’s fin— heightened efficiency and reduced noise, propelling advancements across diverse applications such as hydroelectric turbines, irrigation pumps, and ventilation systems, and others.”

Then there’s a butterfly with wings so black that they have no reflection or glare. Scientists are now studying the wings to improve the efficiency of solar panels. Nature in all ways is efficient and wastes nothing. “And as we look into the future, Biomimicry’s role in space exploration includes technology and human design elements that address surviving in harsh environments and sustainability issues such as reduced waste. And taking a chapter from science fiction, creation of self-healing materials inspired by organisms with regenerative abilities,” according to Biomimicry research, passed along from Dwyer.

Speaking of harsh environments, consider the James Webb Space Telescope, which now orbits the Sun a million miles away from Earth to find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe and peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems. So, what does that have to do with the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History? Plenty...

The Museum was selected by NASA as the only Cape Cod Community Host for events celebrating the successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope—events for children and adults that have included: promotion of NASA’s Webb launch website; speakers, trainings on the Webb Space Telescope and Webb science; Webb lithographs, posters, decals, lapel pins, bookmarks, and other. From the start, the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History has been highly successful in helping others develop an appreciation for nature on all fronts. “Going forward, we want to encourage visitors to not simply learn about nature, but more importantly to learn from nature,” says Dwyer.

According to Museum history, they passed a hat, each contributing $3.14 for starters. And so with $22, the Cape Cod Junior Museum was established, later to be called the Cape Cod Junior Museum of Natural History, and finally the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History.

At 70, the Museum has come full circle with its initial mission. In the words of John Hay, “The Museum has an absolutely essential job.It must identify and interpret all that is significant...Its work lies in interpreting a distinctive place.”

Greg O’Brien of Brewster, a longtime Cape Cod LIFE contributor, a career journalist, author and scriptwriter, has served on the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History’s Board of Trustees for 25 years.