Where the "big stuff" is

Mission: To discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.

In 1871 The American Museum of Natural History mounted its first exhibit in the Central Park Arsenal. Within one year, the institution had outgrown its home at the Arsenal and was busily engaged in building a bigger facility.

One hundred and thirty-five years later, the Museum is still expanding, adding new halls, exhibits and laboratories. The current facilities include 45 permanent exhibition halls spread across 25 interconnected buildings all located on 18 acres across the street from Central Park.

Regardless of the latest additions, for many people the museum will always be the place where the "big stuff" is -- the monumental, the outlandish, the extraordinary all lie within these stone walls.

Whether you are on your first visit or your thousandth, at some point a trip to the Museum will make you stop in your tracks, look up in awe and say, "Wow!"


The five-story tall Barosaurus at the main entrance


A 300 foot wide slice from Giant Sequoia tree


The 94 foot long blue whale

American Museum of Natural History

Barosaurus

Giant Sequoia

The Hall of Ocean Life