The San Diego Natural History Museum was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History. The location of the museum in San Diego’s Balboa Park was dedicated on January 14, 1933. It is the oldest scientific institution in southern California, and the third oldest west of the Mississippi. In its initial years, the Society was the region’s primary source of scientific culture, serving a small but growing community eager for information about its natural resources. Early society members established a weather station, petitioned to create Torrey Pines State Reserve, and garnered support for the San Diego Zoological Society.
In June 1912, the Society met for the first time in its new quarters in the Hotel Cecil, recently built on 6th Avenue in San Diego. Later that same month exhibits created by Frank and Kate Stephens were installed in a single room and adjoining alcove, and were open to the public several afternoons each week. The Society had opened its first museum.
San Diego Natural History Museum is focuses on the flora, fauna, and mineralogy of the region, including Mexico; as a binational museum, research is done on both sides of the border and most exhibits are bilingual. You can see them all in about two hours. There’s a 300-seat large-format 3D movie theater, and two films are included in the price of admission. The interactive installation Fossil Mysteries is the museum’s largest, most detailed exhibit; it includes life-size models of prehistoric animals such as the Megalodon shark, the largest predator the world has ever known. SDNHM also leads free nature hikes and has a full schedule of classes, lectures, and overnight expeditions for both families and adults.
San Diego Natural History Museum Info
Hours :Daily 10am-5pm
Transportation Bus: 7
Phone: 619/232-3821
Web site: www.sdnhm.org
Prices: $17 adults, $15 seniors; $12 students, youth age 11-17, and active-duty military; $11 children 3-12; free for children 2 and under. Please check it again for valid information.
