Explore the nation’s oldest natural history museum! From the towering T-Rex in Dinosaur Hall to the famed nature dioramas featuring biodiversity from around the world, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University has something for everyone.

Visitors can experience the Academy’s new exhibition – Botany of Nations: Indigenous Ecological Knowledge and the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery.

Collected on the famous expedition, some of the oldest plant specimens in the country today are housed in the Academy’s own Lewis and Clark Herbarium. Learn how the Native Nations Meriwether Lewis met on the trail shaped America’s plant knowledge long before Western scientists claimed these “discoveries.” Centering the voices of Native Nations who have protected and cared for the lands for thousands of years, Botany of Nations presents plants as portals to Indigenous storytelling and knowledge. You will:

• See 18th and early 19th century scientific instruments, original journals, maps and herbarium sheets that illuminate the role of natural science on the Corps of Discovery.
• View Native American peace pipes as well as Corps of Discovery peace medals.
• Navigate prairie, plains, plateau and Pacific coast landscapes within a model of the trail as you learn about the importance of plants such as tobacco and chokecherry through film, interactive media, cultural artifacts, sensory experiences and contemporary voices.
• Watch a newly produced film about how Indigenous traditional land practices and cultural systems surrounding food provide contemporary solutions to today’s biodiversity and climate challenges.
• Experience a native plant garden on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to learn how you can grow heritage plants that foster biodiversity.

In addition to exploring all the museum has to offer, Academy in Action – where visitors can engage with Academy scientists to learn about current scientific research – will be open from 10:00am – 1:00pm, our youngest naturalists can dig for their own fossils in the Big Dig and meet-and-greet live animal ambassadors in Outside In. For dino lovers, join the 11:00am Dinosaur Hall Tour, and stick around for the 2:30pm auditorium show!

Learn more about Wawa Welcome America.