Kalamazoo Valley Museum

The Museum's collection dates to an 1881 gift to the Kalamazoo School Board of corals, shells, and rocks from Horace M. Peck, a local banker. Today the collection has grown to over 55,000 items, with a focus on historical artifacts, photographs, and documents representing Kalamazoo County and southwest Michigan.

While only a thousand artifacts might be on exhibit at any particular time, these pages will bring the collection to you in new and interesting ways. Explore stories, blogs, and special features that capitalize on the Museum's historical collections.

The Kalamazoo Valley Museum Planetarium is a 109 seat theater equipped with an Evans & Sutherland Digistar 4 Laser projection system and a 5.1 channel surround sound system.

State of the art computer graphics recreate the sky as seen from any location within three hundred light years of Earth, draw worlds of our solar system in stunning detail, or put visitors in virtual environments representing real or imaginary places and times. For viewing simulations of events in the sky, traveling across the universe, or watching computer graphics synchronized to your favorite music, this is the place to be.

Each theater seat is equipped with five-button keypad providing opportunities to interact with many of the shows. Also equipped with a Microsoft Kinect ™ interface, some visitors may be given an opportunity to take control of a segment of the show.

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