More Exhibits
In addition to our larger exhibts, the Academy has a number of smaller exhibits and displays.
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 the reef.
This cannon was presented to the Academy by the Australian government and now resides next to the Panda Diorama on the Second Floor.
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 2,800 year ago.
The other mummy, a woman from about 2,200 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.
Secrets of the Diorama
What exactly is inside the animals in the Academy’s dioramas? Are the plants and trees real? What does an antelope tongue feel like? Why did they make all those dioramas anyway? Secrets of the Diorama reveals the surprising answers to these and other mysteries while providing insight into the detailed fieldwork and painstaking artistry that brought our dioramas to life. Learn about the history of the dioramas through interactive activities and videos, and see how the plants, animals, and paintings were created. Are they real? What’s the secret?
We Wrote the Book
The nearly 200 volumes in this display are a sample of the hundreds of books written by men and women with ties to the Academy of Natural Sciences. Many of this country’s earliest scientific experts were Academy members who lived right here in Philadelphia and the books they wrote formed the foundation of the study of natural sciences in America.
Today, the Academy continues to be a haven for science writers of all sorts. They include Academy staff and research associates as well as outside authors who relied on the Academy’s collections to tell their stories.
We Wrote the Book on It is located on the Second Floor next to the Library.
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.