Family spot

American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History presents dinosaurs, biodiversity, human cultures, Earth science and space across a vast Upper West Side campus.

City guide

American Museum of Natural History in New York City — At American Museum of Natural History 2024 003Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ). / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Why families will enjoy it

The American Museum of Natural History is one of New York's largest scientific institutions, occupying a multi-building campus opposite Central Park on the Upper West Side. Its collections and exhibitions span paleontology, zoology, anthropology, geology and astronomy, making the museum a sequence of distinct worlds rather than a single gallery visit.

What to expect

The fossil halls are the best-known family draw, with mounted dinosaurs and other prehistoric vertebrates arranged to show evolutionary relationships. Elsewhere, the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life centers on a suspended blue-whale model, while habitat dioramas combine animal specimens, painted environments and meticulous foreground work.

Plan your visit

The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation adds visible collections, immersive spaces and a dramatic atrium to the historic complex. Together with the Rose Center for Earth and Space and the Hayden Planetarium, it shows how the museum connects public display with active research, specimen care and science education.

Sources and updates

References used by Irhal's editors to verify this page.

Last editorial review: 2026-07-01

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Liberty Island

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Why families will enjoy it

What to expect

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