Connecting People to Nature

Philadelphia's natural history museum opened in 1828, revealing the mysteries of nature, from fossils to beetles, to the public through collections organized and labeled in Latin and Greek. Its collections expanded so rapidly that the Academy outgrew its building three times in 60 years. As the first American museum to display a mounted dinosaur, it drew overflowing crowds when Hadrosaurus went on view in 1868. In 1876, the Academy moved to 19th and the Parkway, then on the outskirts of town and now in the heart of the city's cultural district. Today, visitors see dinosaurs, dioramas, and a garden full of butterflies, while children can touch a meteorite, see a stream from underneath, and dig for fossils. Academy educators and scientists create programs for people of all ages, reaching tens of thousands of school children and adults each year. The Academy of Natural Sciences is also a world leader in biodiversity and environmental research, with scientists working in its labs and on expeditions from Amazon to Arctic, and with a 200,000-volume library and a collection of 17 million biological specimens that serve as important resources for scholars.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States