Behind-the-Scenes Collections Tours
If you’ve ever wondered what fascinating things might be hidden behind the scenes at the Academy, now is your chance to find out. For a limited time, from April 15, 2012, until February 2013, our scientists will open our cabinets and drawers to show you the amazing, the spectacular, and the downright unusual items in our collections.
Every month we will showcase a different theme—everything from birds and insects to live animals and the Library and Archives. These one-of-a-kind tours, offered only during our bicentennial year, will take place at the Academy Thursdays through Mondays at 11 am & 2 pm, except on festival weekends. The tours are free but we ask that you register when you enter the museum. Tours are for visitors ages 8 and up, with a maximum of 10 people per tour. You won’t want to miss these special opportunities to talk with our scientists and see some of our treasures. Each theme lasts for one month only, so hurry in!
February 2013: Vertebrate Paleotology Collection
In February, tour the Academy’s famous collection of vertebrate fossils. Over its 200-year history, the Academy’s Vertebrate Paleontology Collection has grown to more than 22,000 unique fossil specimens. The historical core of the collection includes the Thomas Jefferson Fossil Collection, the first dinosaur fossils from North America, and extensive collections of Joseph Leidy and Edward Drinker Cope. Join us behind the scenes to see Ice Age mastodons and giant ground sloths; Hadrosaurus foulkii, the world’s first dinosaur skeleton; Devonian-age fossils recently collected in Pennsylvania; and new species of fossil fish from the Nunavut Territory of Arctic Canada.
Past Tours
- April 2012: Mineral Collection
- May 2012: Library and Archives
- June 2012: Ornithology Collection (birds)
- July 2012: Herpetology and Mammalogy (reptiles, amphibians and mammals)
- August 2012: Entomology Collection (bugs)
- September 2012: Diatom Herbarium
- October 2012: Malacology Collection
- November 2012: Live Animal Center
- December 2012: Ichthyology Collection (fish)
- January 2013: Botany Collection (plants)