Founded in 1927 as the Children's Museum of Hartford, this long-running Connecticut institution is the state's oldest children's museum and the fourth oldest in the United States. Created especially for children ages 2 to 8, it built its identity around hands-on science, natural history, and observation, shaped early by Joseph S. Miller's donation of 50,000 insects. Later known for many years as The Science Center of Connecticut, it has served more than 200,000 people annually through interactive exhibits, science and nature classes, live animals, and a preschool with a science and nature curriculum. Its history also included a major planetarium and Conny the Whale.