More Exhibits
Audubon's Birds of America
Every Friday at 3:15 pm, visitors can come into the Library to watch the weekly page turning of John James Audubon's masterwork Birds of America. Published from 1827–1838, this monumental work is arguably the most influential book on birds ever created.
A prized holding in the Academy Library's extensive rare books collection, this Double Elephant Folio Edition contains 435 life-sized hand-colored engravings bound into five volumes. Less than half of the 200 original sets survive. This is one of them.
Given a total of 435 engravings and a page turning every week, it takes more than eight years to page through all of the birds. See what bird is on display this week at Audubon Bird of the Week.
Captain Cook's Cannon
This cannon is one of several jettisoned from the H.M.B Endeavour by Captain James Cook and his crew when the ship ran aground in Australia's Great Barrier Reef on the night of June 10, 1770. Nearly 200 years later, several cannons and some other artifacts from the incident were discovered during an Academy expedition to collect fish in the reef.
This cannon was presented to the Academy by the Australian government and now resides on the Second Floor outside the Library.
Egyptian Mummy
The Academy's collections include two Ancient Egyptian mummies. You can see one of them, in Africa Hall on the Second Floor. He was a priest who lived about 2800 year ago.
The other mummy, a woman from about 2200 years ago, is currently part of the traveling exhibit Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science.
Marveling at Mollusks
This new exhibit showcases nearly a hundred specimens of clams, scallops, conches, cowries, land snails, chambered nautiluses and many other mollusks from the world-class scientific collections of the Academy's Malacology Department.
Marveling at Mollusks is located on the mezzanine above the main entrance.
Robert Peary's Greenland Flag
The Academy of Natural Sciences sponsored Robert E. Peary's 1891–1892 expedition to Greenland. It was a pivotal, career-building opportunity for Peary, giving him his first experience in the Arctic and preparing him as nothing else could have in his quest to reach the North Pole.
The Peary Flag, planted in the far north of Greenland on July 4, 1892, is a valued possession of the Academy's archives. It's now on display on the second floor, across from the Library.
Science at the Academy
Science at the Academy is an exhibit showcasing some of the world-class science conducted at the Academy. View videos, photos and specimens from our research involving birds, fish, fossils, insects, microscopic diatoms, mollusks and plants.
Science at the Academy also features Tiktaalik roseae, the famous fossil that's transitional between finned-fishes and limbed tetrapods.
This exhibit is located in the Independence Foundation Gallery which is in front of the auditorium.
What Eats What
Big fishes eat little fishes, which eat still littler fishes, which eat bugs, worms, and microscopic animals, which eat algae and bits of plants, which don’t eat anything at all, but get their energy from the sun. Energy keeps the ecological community alive and the flow of energy from one organism to another is called a food chain.
What Eats What presents the consumers and producers that make up the food chain in a stream. It also tells a story of environmental research, something pioneered here at the Academy.
What Eats What is located on the Second Floor.
