Carnegie Museum of Natural History
One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Travel to Antarctica with Paleontologist Dr. Matt Lamanna to search for fossils in a family-friendly, interactive documentary about finding dinosaurs in one of the most remote places on Earth.
This program utilizes an artificial snow machine resulting in heightened noise levels and falling, non-toxic microbubbles.
Weekends at 11:30 a.m. in Earth Theater
$2 per person, tickets available at admission desk or outside Earth Theater 15 minutes before start time.
Learn about scientific discoveries directly from the experts in the field. Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s scientific research staff and invited speakers discuss their latest findings on numerous scientific topics at the R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar series. The free, hour-long lectures take place in the museum’s Earth Theater, join us in-person or attend via livestream.
Let’s party! Whatever you are celebrating, Carnegie Museum of Natural History is here to make your day special. Perfect for birthdays, celebrations, family get-togethers, team bonding events, and more! Bring your own snacks or order pizza and cake from our onsite catering provider.
| Non-Members | $400 |
| Members | $360 |
$50 nonrefundable deposit due at the time of reservation
Enhance your party package with add-ons.
Party guests are welcome to bring their own cake and snacks or can choose from Carnegie Museum’s Culinaire catering options. All food orders must be placed three weeks prior to event. Order minimum is $75. A sales tax of 7% and a 21% service charge are additional costs
Please indicate if anyone in your group has food allergies or dietary restrictions when you place your order.
All bookings must be made 4 weeks in advance.
For children’s parties, an adult must be present with each participating child.
Carnegie Museum of Natural History welcomes all visitors. We work to assist visitors with disabilities in obtaining reasonable and appropriate accommodations, and in supporting equal access to services, programs, and activities.
Families with members who have sensory processing needs are invited to explore the museum galleries with reduced audio and visual elements. Calming spaces with support materials (including single use ear plugs, sunglasses, fidget toys, etc.) will be available.
Museum experts will be on-hand to talk for as little (or as long) as you want about dinosaurs, rocks, gems, animals, bugs, and much more. These are some of our favorite things, too! Every program is designed to welcome all ages and abilities. To provide the most sensory friendly environment possible, advance registration is required for programs that occur outside normal museum hours.
What shaped the Earth’s surface? How are fossils formed? What did western Pennsylvania look like millions of years ago when giant lizards roamed through our once-tropical forests? Learn the answers to these questions and more when you explore the ever-changing nature of our planet in Benedum Hall of Geology.
Three Earth-like domes highlight geological time and dating, fossils, shaping the Earth, and Pittsburgh geology. A fourth dome explores the origin, location, and economic development of coal, oil, and gas. A strong emphasis is placed on the geological processes that shaped Pennsylvania and its neighbors, Ohio and West Virginia. The Stratavator offers a simulated-elevator ride deep into the Earth.
The Section of Invertebrate Paleontology has close to three-quarters of a million fossils in its collection. Because of the special interest in the Paleozoic Era fossils by the section’s four curators and the central location of Carnegie Museum Natural History within the Appalachian Basin, the Paleozoic Era fossils make up almost half the collection.
Investigate the incredibly diverse plant life of North America and Western Pennsylvania in Hall of Botany. Get lost in beautiful dioramas that depict wildly different biomes from all four corners of the United States. Learn about how animals and humans depend on plants for foods, shelter, medicine, and clothing. Discover how temperature and water affect plants by comparing a Florida everglade, an Alpine meadow on Mt. Rainier, an Arizona desert, and a wooded Pennsylvania valley. Identify herbs by their smells, and learn about photosynthesis and the food chain.
The hall also has several dioramas to show the plants and diverse habitats present in Western Pennsylvania. Local habitats like Lake Erie’s Presque Isle during the summer, a Warren County bog in the fall, and the Allegheny National Forest in the spring are all represented in Hall of Botany.
A video in the entryway showcases scientists collecting specimens in the field, preserving them, and ultimately digitizing them so the data can be used by researchers all over the world.
Labels and graphics were created in the museum’s Print Shop using green printing techniques: fiberboard composed of 100% recycled material and a new type of vinyl which contains no Polyvinyl Chlorides (PVCs).
Carnegie Museum’s Herbarium (CM) is the major botanical facility in the Upper Ohio Valley region and ranks among the top 25 herbaria in North America.
