Pittsburgh: Carnegie Museum of Natural History (August 2019)



My spouse and I visited the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated at CMNH) on a Sunday afternoon in late August 2019. The CMNH is open from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm on Wednesdays through Mondays (closed on Tuesdays), with extended evening hours until 8:00 pm on Thursdays. Admission to the CMNH also provides access to the adjacent Carnegie Museum of Art (CMOA) (see our separate review). 

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is located in Pittsburgh’s East End/Oakland neighborhood, within walking distance of the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). On-site parking is available, as well as a museum store and restaurants (Cafe Carnegie [see our separate review] and the Fossil Fuels Café). Complimentary docent-led tours are offered throughout the day. Restrooms and coat check/lockers (which require one quarter to use) are also on-site. 

Pittsburgh industrialist Andrew Carnegie founded the CMNH in 1896. Its collection includes over 22 million specimens, although only 10,000 of them are on view at any one time. The CMNH is considered one of the top five natural history museums in the country and the third largest collection of mounted displayed dinosaurs (only DC’s Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and NYC’s American Museum of Natural History have more). Be sure to visit the displays on the American Indian, polar world, ancient Egypt, geology, minerals and gems, and birds. 

We enjoyed our day visiting the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. We first visited the CMOA in the morning, ate lunch in the full-service Café Carnegie (which provided a great respite during a day of touring), then spent an enjoyable afternoon in the CMNH. Highly recommended!













No comments: