Dyche Hall was declared structurally unsafe and closed in 1932 because the floors were weak and inadequately supported. The collections were re­moved and stored in other buildings around the campus. Professor Henry Higgins Lane, who had been head of the Zoology Department since 1922 and who had drawn the basic plans for New Snow Hall, "planned and superin­tended the reconstruction of the mu­seum building, from basement floor to roof." It was the Depression Era and funds were limited, but a total of $125,000 was appropriated by the Legis­lature. The reconstruction of the interior of the building, reorganization of the collections, and installation of the exhib­its took nine years. The museum re­opened on June 7, 1941.

The museum collections grew as the University expanded over the next twenty years. E. Raymond Hall became museum director in 1944. He oversaw the renovation of the Panorama includ­ing the addition of the desert and tropical scenes and a domed ceiling. Hall secured funds for a new wing, added between 1961 and 1963 at a cost of $840,000, which doubled the size of the museum. Besides housing collec­tions, laboratories, and offices, the new wing provided an auditorium.