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For my spring break, my mother and I went to Cleveland, Ohio, where Balto's body is kept in the city's natural history museum. As luck would have it, the Cleveland Natural History Museum was running a special exhibit on Balto and the serum run! It was a lot smaller than I expected, but here's a few pictures.

Not shown: The musher's set up (you can see it behind Balto a little bit) and two cases on the floor. One contains merchandise pertaining to Balto and the other printings and publications pertaining to Balto. Interestingly enough, the animated movie was not mentioned at all in this exhibit, not even in the merchandise section.

I apologize for the quality of some of these, I didn't have my nice Canon with me.


The timeline of events in the serum run starting with the initial outbreak and ending with Balto's death.


The serum itself! On the left is the kit used to dispense the medicine with an illustration of how it's done (it doesn't look fun) and on the right is the serum.


The end of the timeline. To the left of this was a small monitor running historical reels with all footage of Balto.


An interactive "game" where you built a sled dog team to see how they would fare on the path Balto took. That's my mom's hand.


Here's the team my mom and I put together! A dachshund, a cat, a chihuahua, and another dachshund. This team is destined for greatness.


Okay, maybe not.


The dog himself! You can see a little bit of the musher's setup behind him through the glass.

On the way out, I picked up a shirt, a card on the exhibit, and preordered the cutest little beanbag animal of Balto.

The exhibit is running from March 6th to May 9th. It's fairly small (only one room) but it's worth a look if you're in the area.

I've been there once before, but it was nothing compared to this! They had none of this stuff up when I was there back in 2006. It was just him up against the wall. Thanks for sharing this!

Hehe, I have the little plush too. He's just kinda lost at the moment. I also have the mug with the telegraph that was sent when Nome needed the medicine.

It comes out in July of this year, but I'll try to remember!


We were wondering where Balto would be normally in the museum. I'm assuming they're running this exhibit because of the end of the Iditarod.

I would be all over that mug. I always need more for my tea addiction. xD

I think they move him around a bit, but when I was there he was in this small area just off the lobby. Allow me to give directions. Okay, so, when you first walk in there is the desk. Then you take a left and you see these paintings of fruits and other things. Then strait ahead is where Balto is at.

Im totally going to go see that! I live right in the area so I can just go when I want! It looks so cool according to the pics. Now I can't wait to go!!!

That exhibit looks so freeking awesome. If I had the money myself I would drive to Cleveland over spring break just to see it.

Do you know if it will be coming to Chicago?

This isn't a traveling exhibit. Balto stays in the Cleveland museum of natural history in Cleveland,OH.

Mighty's right. Balto won't be going anywhere any time soon.

I need to unpack (just got back to my dorm) but I'll upload a few more pictures from the Cleveland Zoo, where Balto lived the last part of his life. Not as many mentions, they have a small card on a bulletin board in the fake lodge in front, a model of the harness Balto wore, and statues of Balto and Togo at the side entrance of the exhibit. The enclosure where Balto and his team lived now holds the Cleveland Zoo Mexican and grey wolves.

I'll see if I can salvage some of the pictures of the wolves, they kept running around and the glass was reflective so some are blurry.

Oh yeah! I remember the Cleveland Zoo! My girl scout troop had a sleepover in the room next to the wolves behind the glass after closing. It was really fun. We learned how humans can find wolves in the wild and tried it ourselves, only we used a stuffed animal wolf. Hey Sora, did you take the picture of the Balto and Togo statues in the Zoo?

I did! I'll probably put up a separate thread since the pictures are on the big side.

I did have my nice Canon for the zoo.

whew! I thought you forgot those. Great pics! I love them!

I can assure you that isn't what I saw when I visited this week. The place where he was they had moved him to a spot that was almost like he was out of the way and no one seemed to care

XXX!