Houston Museum
of Natural Science

If you are interested in natural history, you can’t miss the Houston Museum of Natural Science! 

Located on the northern border of Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, the HMNS is one of the most heavily visited museums in the US. It ranks just below NYC’s American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It owes a lot of its popularity to its numerous special and guest exhibits. 

If you visit the Houston Museum of Natural Science, you can expect to find plenty of interesting discoveries! The museum is geared toward natural sciences such as astronomy, paleontology, energy, and chemistry rather than technology, and a few of the things you might find include: 

• An observatory where you can look through one of the largest telescopes in the country. 
• The Cockrell Butterfly Center, where you can see stunning exhibits with hundreds of live exotic butterflies in a natural rainforest setting. 
• Moran Paleontology Hall, where you will see more than 450 fossils and fossil replicas and get a glimpse into the incredible history of the earth. 
• The Hall of Ancient Egypt, where you will see not only a glimpse into the prehistoric world but numerous artifacts from Ancient Egyptian Civilization. 
• Spectacular gems and minerals at the Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals, including some of the world’s rarest samples. 
• Interactive displays, computers, and experiments at the Welch Chemistry Hall. 
• A surprisingly diverse display of mollusks and invertebrates, both living and fossilized, in the Strake Hall of Malacology. 
• The Foucault Pendulum, a world-famous pendulum that demonstrates the earth’s movement. 

And so much more! You will see exhibits on African animals, Texan flora and fauna, energy, chemistry, Native Americans, seashells, paleontology, and space. 

How did this amazing collection of natural history come to be? 

The initial museum organization, called the Houston Museum and Scientific Society, was created in 1909. Then the museum acquired the bulk of its collection between 1914 and 1930. The museum grew rapidly, and by the 1980s, it included a dinosaur exhibit, space museum, and exhibits on geology, biology, petroleum science, and more.