The Wagner Free Institute of Science
An unusual natural science and history museum in its original Victorian setting.
The Experience
While just coming to the Wagner Free Institute of Science’s Victorian building is a treat, it is only a precursor to the vast 100,000-specimen museum on the brightly-lit second floor. There are stuffed birds and small animals in antique glass cases and complete skeletons of larger animals, like a buffalo and an English draft horse, spotted around the floor in between.
The animal exhibits may be more prominent, but don’t miss the many cases of minerals, insects, shells and, especially, the fossils. There are oddments that are fascinating without being bizarre – mastodon teeth, huge corals, rattlesnake hides. The interpretations around the exhibits explain the changes in the science of the Victorian era with ours today.
History
Begun in 1855 by William and Louisa Binney Wagner as a free adult science-education institution, the Wagner Free Institute of Science continues its mission with classes, a 45,000-volume research library and a natural-history museum with specimens dating back to its founding. The building itself is a National Historic Landmark.