American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, adjacent to Central Park, has been a center of scientific research and public education since its founding in 1869. Its campus of interconnected buildings houses 45 permanent exhibition halls presenting the full sweep of natural science — from the origins of the universe to the diversity of life on Earth today. The Hall of Ocean Life on the first floor is perhaps the museum's single most celebrated space: a 94-foot blue whale model suspended from the ceiling of a long, dimly lit hall whose walls carry dioramas of marine life at different depths. The fourth-floor dinosaur halls represent one of the world's great paleontological collections: the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs leads visitors past an Apatosaurus skeleton into a space where a mounted Tyrannosaurus rex faces a Triceratops, with fossil preparation windows allowing views into the museum's active research labs. The Hayden Planetarium — a glass sphere 87 feet in diameter suspended within the Rose Center for Earth and Space — presents the Space Show, a narrated journey through the cosmos projected on a full dome. The Hall of Planet Earth examines geological processes through an extraordinary collection of minerals and gemstones including the 563-carat Star of India sapphire. The Hall of Gems and the Northwest Coast Hall are also major draws for families. Visiting on weekday mornings avoids the large school groups and family crowds that concentrate on weekend afternoons and during school holiday periods.