Philadelphia’s Oldest Natural History Museum Closes

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, widely regarded as the oldest natural history museum in the Americas, closed its public museum at the end of the day on September 30, 2026 — just short of its 200th anniversary. The final regular public day was Sunday, September 27, when thousands of families filed through the doors before a 5 p.m. close. According to NPR, the closure marks the end of an era for one of the nation’s most storied scientific institutions, and it has triggered protests, a City Council inquiry, and an eleventh-hour effort to save it.

A Museum Nearly Two Centuries in the Making

Founded in 1812 by seven naturalists and opened to the public in 1828, the Academy was the first place in the world to display a dinosaur skeleton, doing so in 1868. It has long been considered the birthplace of American paleontology. Its collections, housed at 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway since 1875, are among the most important scientific assets in the world.

The Academy holds roughly 19 million specimens, including Thomas Jefferson’s fossil collection and plant samples gathered by Lewis and Clark. It also maintains an archive of more than 73,000 holotype specimens — carefully preserved samples that scientists use to define and name species — along with a library of more than 75,000 titles, some dating to 1529.

“This is the oldest natural history museum in the Americas,” said Isa Betancourt, who worked in the Academy’s entomology department for a decade, from 2011 to 2021. Betancourt now lives in Arizona but flew back to Philadelphia to help organize the “Save the Academy” campaign, which drew rallies, marches, and an online petition that collected more than 114,000 signatures.

“If this museum can slip away like that, what’s stopping other museums from going the same way? We can’t let this be a precedent,” she told NPR.

A Sudden Closure

The announcement came on September 1, 2026 — roughly a month before the doors shut. Drexel University, which assumed financial responsibility for the Academy in 2011, explained on its website that post-pandemic costs had risen while attendance declined, describing “fundamental changes in the economics of the Academy’s operational model.”

The abrupt timeline stunned many in the city. In the final weeks, museum attendance surged, and revenue ran more than 20 times higher than the same period the previous year. “Maybe if they had announced this last year, they could have gotten the crowds they have now,” said visitor Zoe Abrams. “This is busier than Grand Central. Could have saved things.”

Critics said Drexel neither mounted a public fundraising campaign nor approached the city for help. “When they announced the one month notice it was a surprise for everybody,” Betancourt said. “It’s like the leadership didn’t even try to keep it open, and that’s why there’s a lot of frustration around what’s happening. It’s just not right.”

Drexel said in a statement that it “remains deeply committed to protecting the Academy of Natural Sciences’ extraordinary legacy.”

A Last-Minute Lifeline

Less than a week before the closing date, the William Penn Foundation offered a year’s worth of bridge funding to buy time for a more permanent solution. Drexel said it was exploring the possibility of working with the foundation but would need a plan for long-term sustainability before considering reopening the museum.

Philadelphia’s City Council has moved to intervene. Council members Dr. Nina Ahmad and Jeffery Young Jr. introduced a resolution for public hearings with subpoena power over Drexel, and the council proposed altering local zoning overlays to make selling or converting the roughly 150-year-old building more difficult. As WHYY reported, the council also floated listing the building on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places to open access to special tax credits.

“We need to know how this came to be. What were the levers that created this decision, and how do we undo that decision?” Ahmad said. “There was no campaign in the recent past that we can find to encourage or to tell the city of Philadelphia, ‘We’re in danger of closing if you don’t come and use our museum.’ None of that.”

A University Under Pressure

The Academy’s fortunes became entangled with Drexel’s when the two institutions announced an “affiliation” in 2011. The Academy became a subsidiary of the university but retained its own board and 501(c)(3) status. At the time of the partnership, the Academy’s president pointed to “a rock-solid balance sheet with a $51 million endowment.”

Like many universities, however, Drexel has struggled financially, in part because of declining enrollment. As attendance fell, the museum laid off staff and reduced its hours from five days a week to three in October 2025, and it canceled its 2026 summer camp program. Earlier this year, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the university and the Academy were renegotiating their relationship, with Drexel seeking a full merger that would grant it the building, endowment, and collections. The Inquirer has since reported that the two sides may disaffiliate entirely.

Hard Times for Museums Nationwide

The closure comes amid a broader decline in support for cultural and scientific institutions. A 2025 survey by the American Alliance of Museums found that a third of its members had government grants or contracts canceled, and more than two-thirds were affected by executive orders in some way.

“It’s certainly a challenging time for the museum field,” said Natanya Kashan, a spokesperson for the American Alliance of Museums. “The financial pressures are not only in federal funding, they’re also in philanthropy, in corporate donations, in individual giving.”

Drexel has said it will preserve access to the Academy’s collections for students and researchers, but it is unclear what the closure means for the general public. When asked whether the museum might reopen, Academy board chair Suzanne Biemiller said, “I would hope so. That’s the goal. I think we have not given up on that part of our mission.” She added that a future museum “could be at the current location in a different configuration, it could be a new location.”

What’s Next

Mayor Cherelle Parker and Governor Josh Shapiro have said they are working on long-term plans, and a third-party facilitator, former U.S. Ambassador to Canada David L. Cohen, has been named to help broker a path forward. Cohen told WHYY that the two sides were close to a “term sheet” addressing governance and finances. “We want to preserve the Academy, but we also don’t want to jeopardize Drexel,” he said.

Philadelphia has rescued struggling cultural institutions before — most famously the Barnes Foundation and the Please Touch Children’s Museum. But those campaigns succeeded before the institutions closed. Reopening an already shuttered museum is a far harder task, and for now, the nation’s oldest natural history museum sits dark just months shy of its 200th birthday. What remains to be seen is whether the public outcry, the Council’s subpoena-powered hearings, and the bridge-funding offer can do what a month’s notice could not: give the Academy another 200 years of life.