Museum of the Earth

Museum · Northwest Ithaca

Museum of the Earth

Museum · Northwest Ithaca

1259 Trumansburg Rd, Ithaca, NY 14850

Highlights

Combining kid-friendly hands-on exhibits with a treasure trove of fossils, the Museum of the Earth makes for a delightful and educational family outing.

1259 Trumansburg Rd, Ithaca, NY 14850 Get directions

museumoftheearth.org

@museumoftheearth

@onthegrid

"They have a Stegosaurus. And a Mastodon skeleton found in upstate New York. That right there is worth your entrance fee. Our personal favorite is the Right Whale skeleton dominating the lobby - so much to talk about when confronted with the enormity of this creature. The museum is the public education component of the Paleontological Research Institution, whose mission is primary research. The permanent collections are amazing - climb through a glacier? The "Rock of Ages, Sands of Time" series of paintings representing 550 million years of fossil flora and fauna in chronological order? Every second Saturday you can bring your fossil mysteries to the museum and experts will help you identify them. Then they'll tell you where to go to find more. We love a visit to Portland Point Quarry….coming soon in the Lansing guide! And…don’t miss the beautiful new mural by local artist Mary Beth Ihnken…we could do a guide just based on her work (also seen at Purity Ice Cream Co., Viva Taqueria, Mama Goose and the Piggery – all places in our list – but you can find her work all over Ithaca!)" - St. John Design Group

On the Grid : Museum of the Earth

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@onthegrid

"Museum of the Earth, The Hills East South West. They have a Stegosaurus. And a Mastodon skeleton found in upstate New York. That right there is worth your entrance fee. Our personal favorite is the Right Whale skeleton dominating the lobby - so much to talk about when confronted with the enormity of this creature. The museum is the public education component of the Paleontological Research Institution, whose mission is primary research. The permanent collections are amazing - climb through a glacier? The "Rock of Ages, Sands of Time" series of paintings representing 550 million years of fossil flora and fauna in chronological order? Every second Saturday you can bring your fossil mysteries to the museum and experts will help you identify them. Then they'll tell you where to go to find more. We love a visit to Portland Point Quarry….coming soon in the Lansing guide! And…don’t miss the beautiful new mural by local artist Mary Beth Ihnken…we could do a guide just based on her work (also seen at Purity Ice Cream Co., Viva Taqueria, Mama Goose and the Piggery – all places in our list – but you can find her work all over Ithaca!)"

Ithaca

View Postcard for Museum of the Earth

Ami A

Google

We had our Wedding this past September at museum of the earth. Rob and Kelby were very helpful along with the other front desk staff who allowed us to tour the space, ask (a lot of) questions and it turned out to be such a fun space to host our guests. We had about 100 people and fit pretty comfortably. It's definitely a DIY type of space - we brought in all our own vendors including rentals, catering, DJ, and photographer. We had full access to the whole museum and enough space for a dance floor too. They also allowed us to play a slideshow of photos on a big tv in their little small theater that is usually there for the museum while the party was going on. We really wanted a fun unique venue and for our money to support a good cause and the museum of the earth really delivered on both accounts. Made for a fun theme too - we made our entrance in dinosaur costumes and had some fun dinosaur themed activities for the kiddos. Thanks! Photos are by photographer Anna Simonak - she was amazing as well if you're looking for a great photographer ;)

Ahmad Nashif

Google

Cool little place! Two floors but technically 1 as the only thing really to see on the top floor is a whale skeleton and the gift shop. Bottom floor has tons of fossils, dinosaurs, cool information about different prehistoric eras and climate change. You can likely spend 1-2 hours here.

Marion NYC

Google

This place is a great place to go with kids if you need to do something indoors because of bad weather. The exhibits were just ok. It felt a bit old and out of date. It’s not very engaging or interactive. Even the scavenger hunt was a bit sad. You wander around and you don’t see anybody that works there to engage the kids or guests with questions or spark any curiosity. Even the admission ticket people seemed a bit sad. It’s not a bad thing to do with kids but not on the top of my list.

Sybil M

Google

A great way to spend an hour or so on a rainy day. The museum isn't huge, but they have a large collection of fossils to see, and lots of information. The gift shop was a little underwhelming, and seemed in need of a restock.

Adam Lee

Google

Fantastic museum. Great exhibits, well played out and super informative. Get there before it permanently closes, it's worth the trip!

katmel8r

Google

This is hard to review because while I thought this place was pretty cool, my two teenage daughters weren't really into it. I loved all the different exhibits they had but noticed that its definitely an acquired taste. You either love science or you don't. Either way I did get some decent pictures so here they are.

Charles Hollenbeck

Google

I'm always a sucker for natural history museums, and had been meaning to visit here for some time. This museum is a good size. It's not too brief, and not absolutely massive. It is well worth the stop if you are in the area, perhaps visiting Taughannock. Also has a ton of parking.

Anu

Google

A very neat but small museum. It was very educational for kids and adults. The staff were very friendly and the restrooms were very clean. It was not on our list of things to do but since it was raining we decided to go here. We thought we wouldn’t spend more than an hour but we spent about two hours going through every exhibit and reading through everything in detail. The little gift shop was cute and reasonably priced.

Jessica R.

Yelp

This is an excellent indoor activity for children and adults. The cashier also informed us of the military discount. My husband is a navy veteran and the family receives 50% off admission. So many interactive exhibits. Visually exciting and made learning fun for my daughters on a rainy day.

Lauren S.

Yelp

Perfect for toddlers, my twins absolutely loved this museum. It's not very large but it had a lot of interactive options for the younger aged kids. My twins are 2 almost 3 and we ended up getting a membership after our visit because we could tell they liked it enough to return enough to some that worth it, I would stay it's not gear toward adults but if you have children this is a great place to visit. They even had a space for sensory issues children if they need it which was very nice, we didn't stay cause my kids are too loud but we peeked. If you have dinosaur loving kids there a lot.

Vikki D.

Yelp

A great way to spend 2 hours wandering and learning. I had a free day on a work trip and decided to pop into the museum. It's small but informative and nicely set up. It focuses on the changes seen in the northeast area, featuring a fish tank set up, glacier area, a mammoth found in someone's backyard, and many exhibits on local sediment and fossils. There was even an animal ambassador when I went and I got to root around for a fossil to take home, complete with certificate of authenticity from the staff. The front desk staff was so gracious and willing to give me recommendations on other local sights.

Richard D.

Yelp

I visited here with my girlfriend on November 26th. The Museum of the Earth is a wonderful geologic and paleontological museum right in the heart of the Finger Lakes with exhibits about all the ages of the Earth and a special focus on New York's geology. It was particularly interesting to learn about Coelophysis, a dinosaur that may have existed in New York based on fossilized tracks that match known Coelophysis footprints from New Mexico. The exhibits about Eurypterid fossils, the Official New York State Fossil, were fun and gave a better understanding of just how large these "sea scorpions" were. Dinosaur exhibits brought to mind Ian Malcolm's warnings from the "Jurassic Park" franchise. The Hyde Park Mastodon was another neat New York connection to paleontology.

Kayla C.

Yelp

What an amazing adventure and learning experience to be had at this interactive museum! Great for kids and adults. The museum is tucked away along the beautiful Cayuga Lake. The drive to this museum is so beautiful. Once you arrive there will be parking up front and there is a second gravel parking lot that you drive by before reaching the building. Beautiful architectural buildings surround you when you arrive. $9 for a ticket or $1 if you have an EBT card. When you walk in you embark on a journey of the earth, it's creation and all the living things that have been around before us! (I.e. fossils, sea life, dinosaurs, etc) They also include a lot of local history which I really enjoyed learning about. Fun activities along the way for kids, a fossil digging station to find your own fossil! And a short video in each room explaining earth's evolution. There was an optional voice guided tour you can listen to on your phone but we opted out of this as there was plenty to read and do already. At the end we explored the gift shop and they had a lot of earth/fossil/dinosaur related gifts for children, good selection of books, candy, jewelry and my favorite! A penny press machine! If you're in the are you shouldn't pass this little gem up!

Amy S.

Yelp

Fantastic natural history museum. Very well laid out with each geologic period in different rooms. Great reference for central New York geology.

Hunter S.

Yelp

I was between a 3 and a 4. I went with 4 stars because, though not the biggest or most impressive, it's very clean, clearly laid out, and informative. It's not meant to be the Smithsonian, but is a fun stopover if you're in the area. They have a large, rare wale skeleton. They have a mastodon that was found in Hyde Park. The special exhibit when we were there was about women in paleontology/biology/archaeology. It was refreshing to see the diversity of women represented! There were also exhibits on climate change, glaciers, evolution of life. Again, very concise and well laid out. It was 9 dollars for an adult ticket, and we were happy to support the organization.

Sue P.

Yelp

If you like fossils, this is the place for you! Lots of fossils local to the area plus others from around the globe to tell the story of earth's past. Great for kids and adults alike. Fun gift shop too!

Caffeinegirl G.

Yelp

This is a wonderfully informative museum in a relatively small space. There are separate galleries for each age (ie. Cambrian, Jurassic, etc) which include fossils, artifacts, videos and informative images. In addition there is a rotating exhibit space, which currently features the Cornell insect collection. There is also an observation area for seeing active paleontologist projects. The museum is very kid friendly, with scavenger hunts and interactive exhibits. It's a great addition to a visit to Ithaca and a wonderful way to spend a rainy day with kids. +1 to the staff who was super friendly and also to the gift shop!

Joyce L.

Yelp

Museum of the Earth is not very big museum but you can spend an hour or so browsing through. They do have lot of fossil things. One of the interesting things here is the North Atlantic Right whale display on the ceiling. This whale died back in 1999 and people volunteered to preserve it and displayed here at this museum. They also have live horseshoe crabs. You can get really close to the tank and see how many legs and pinchers they have. I say this museum is good for little ones because you can get very close to lot of the displays and see them up close.

Jesse S.

Yelp

Well, this is an absolute snooze fest. Some people complain that you can see everything in under an hour, but I think that about 15 minutes is more like it. I guess it would take longer if you read all of the text on the wall or sat down and watched all of the videos that feature old British men saying things like "In the beginning there was carbon," but I wouldn't do that if I were you. As someone else noted, adults would be better served by just reading Wikipedia while the information isn't really accessible to small kids. Also, the lady at the front desk snapped at my kid for touching some thing that wasn't clearly marked as "don't touch" in a way that made me think she had been waiting for someone to touch it all day. I can't imagine that anyone would ever come here twice. I certainly won't.

Timothy S.

Yelp

Passed many times and decided to finally stop in. From the road it looks small, but there's a lower floor that is larger than expected. Laid out so you are walked through the ages of the Earth, seeing the geological/fossil record, my wife and I were amazed at the wealth of fossil examples. There are some areas designed for children, and some impressive skeletons, including a real Right Whale in the lobby with a story behind it. Never heard of the Paleontological Research Institute before, but they've made something impressive inside a (from the road) ordinary-looking building. Will go again when we have more time!

James G.

Yelp

The redhead was very rude and condescending when I was trying to check out some toys for my kids and barely paid attention to the other customers who were in front of me

Amy H.

Yelp

This is an interesting museum, but the size is pretty small. It does have a lot of cool fossils and interactive exhibitions that didn't exactly float my boat but would be great for children.

Melissa C.

Yelp

We stumbled across this gem while on a long road trip through the finger lakes region. Tucked in between farmland and large estates- turned- schools, we passed a concrete pylon sign for the "Museum of the Earth". Being fans of natural history and geology, we couldn't pass this up. For $9 each, we spent about an hour and a half wandering through the exhibits learning about the prehistoric eras, their flora and fauna, associated extinction events, and key characteristics. We have to say, these exhibits summarized each era very cleanly and conveyed the key points so clearly the we were able to start to identify on our own where certain types of creatures originated and died out. Bravo. The building design is striking, so much so that I was trying to locate some mention of the architect (without luck). Honestly, the only disappointment in our visit.

Betty L.

Yelp

Pretty fun. Cool exhibits. So glad the Smithsonian had a garage sale so that this place could exist.

Sarah W.

Yelp

I LOVE this museum. As someone who grew up visiting the Natural History Museum every other weekend, I was delighted to find this hidden gem in Ithaca. Even though the museum itself is relatively small, I could have easily spent all day there. There are great activities for kids and adults, alike. There's so much great material here that I feel like the Museum could easily produce a book with information from its exhibits. The gift shop has a wealth of information too, and I bought a great book on climate change.

Joseph W.

Yelp

the museum of the earth is awesome and i highly recommend it to every one and please check it out

Heather B.

Yelp

The Museum of the Earth is an innovative, engaging experience for children ages 5 and up. Interactive exhibits and mind-blowing specimens are a few of the great discoveries behind the Museum's doors. The skeleton of the Right Whale is breath-taking and sad, while the massive Mastodon in the Glacier Exhibit is stunningly HUGE!! The museum is fairly small and for an adult can be walked through in less than an hour, but the museum's directive goes beyond the specimens and fossils displayed within its walls. Ongoing programs like Fossil Friday, Dinosaur Tales, and annual programs such as Darwin Day and Teacher Resource Day reach into and beyond the Ithaca community, pulling people of all minds together to celebrate the Earth and her history.

L. L.

Yelp

This is a small but excellent museum. I really liked the timeline-based walkthrough, which put the fossils into context. They also have a "find your own fossil" area, which lets you examine rocks for fossils, then take them home. The focus seems to be on the time periods in which the rocks around Ithaca were formed, which makes sense. They also do field trips to look for fossils for both families and adults. When I went, there was a traveling exhibit on biodiversity that was pretty good, in addition to the permanent exhibits.

Candice O.

Yelp

Smallest museum ever. I went here with my 5 year old son and walked through it in 10 min. He was expecting so much more, we ended up going down the hill to Science Time to fill up the afternoon.

Ben K.

Yelp

This museum was great, we were here on the first Sunday in March and it turns out admission was free on that day! The museum is small compared to many others but that does not at all imply that it is sub-par in other respects. Indeed this museum leads you on an enthralling tour through earth history replete with fossils and information about climate change and plate tectonics. Really informative and fascinating, plus lots of hands on activities for kids and adults who are young at heart. Bring some granola bars because odds are when you are wandering the halls of this museum you will lose track of time and not even notice you've spent 3 hours inside!!

Anna P.

Yelp

Kids (ages 8 and 11) really enjoyed the museum, lots of hands on activities, particularly examining fossils. Spent a good 2-3 hours there.

Ariel T.

Yelp

This was an interesting museum. We found this place on a whim while visiting. However, we had different expectations as to what the place was going to be but we still enjoyed our time there. The whole tunnel that feels like ice was amazing and the mammoth they have was very interesting. Overall, just lovely. Great for kids

Joe L.

Yelp

i can't believe that i went to college at ic and never realized that this museum was here. it was excellent. really interesting displays of dinosaurs, trilobites, and extinct animals. very well done galleries too. i think the whole thing may be a bit too mature of a subject for 5 year-olds to really comprehend and get a grasp on, but they would probably enjoy the giant t-rex skeleton head and such. my one critique is that i thought that it could have provided a bit more information on darwin himself than what was actually there, but i still enjoyed the museum none the less. i'd say the whole thing can be done in about an hour. as a young adult, i enjoyed it way better than the science center. AND the museum of the earth was free on this particular sunday. score!

L L.

Yelp

It is an intimate little museum on the out-skirt of Ithaca - aka Paleontological Research. Good museum with a lot information on the dinosaurs and the history of our own planet. The admission is not expensive and worth a visit if you are in Ithaca.

Kyron S.

Yelp

Ok for kids, adults would find Wikipedia more engaging. Not really what I would expect out of a museum.

Scott D.

Yelp

Tucked away about 300 yards off a two-lane road on the western side of Cayuga Lake is this terrific little museum that tells the story of life on earth from its beginnings nearly 4 billion years ago. Fossils are in abundance and except where protected by plexiglass cases, touching is encouraged. Holding a 350 million year old fossil in the palm of your hand is a rare privilege. Yet, anyone who pays the modest $8 admission for adults ($5 for youth under 17) is given the opportunity. Spend an hour or two or several, the museum has something to pique the interest of anyone with a curious mind.

Steve M.

Yelp

Great for kids of all ages...my son looks forward to it (and even requests it out of the blue). I even find myself "playing" with some of the exhibits. Great for an afternoon.

Constance B.

Yelp

The Museum of the Earth is a gem, in a lovely spot, overlooking Cayuga lake from the western shore just a mile or two above Ithaca. The inside displays are top notch, and offer a great counter to the nonsense of places like the Creationist Museum in Kentucky. The museum lays out the diversity of life on ancient Earth in a very straightforward, easy to understand way, and makes a hands-on case for evolution through natural selection. The only thing I don't quite understand is the glacial garden outside in the back. It needs more explanation, and seems just an afterthought.

@onthegrid

On the Grid : Museum of the Earth

View Postcard for Museum of the Earth

@onthegrid

Ithaca

View Postcard for Museum of the Earth

Ami A

Google

Ahmad Nashif

Google

Marion NYC

Google

Sybil M

Google

Adam Lee

Google

Fantastic museum. Great exhibits, well played out and super informative. Get there before it permanently closes, it's worth the trip!

katmel8r

Google

Charles Hollenbeck

Google

Anu

Google

Jessica R.

Yelp

Lauren S.

Yelp

Vikki D.

Yelp

Richard D.

Yelp

Kayla C.

Yelp

Amy S.

Yelp

Fantastic natural history museum. Very well laid out with each geologic period in different rooms. Great reference for central New York geology.

Hunter S.

Yelp

Sue P.

Yelp

Caffeinegirl G.

Yelp

Joyce L.

Yelp

Jesse S.

Yelp

Timothy S.

Yelp

James G.

Yelp

The redhead was very rude and condescending when I was trying to check out some toys for my kids and barely paid attention to the other customers who were in front of me

Amy H.

Yelp

This is an interesting museum, but the size is pretty small. It does have a lot of cool fossils and interactive exhibitions that didn't exactly float my boat but would be great for children.

Melissa C.

Yelp

Betty L.

Yelp

Pretty fun. Cool exhibits. So glad the Smithsonian had a garage sale so that this place could exist.

Sarah W.

Yelp

Joseph W.

Yelp

the museum of the earth is awesome and i highly recommend it to every one and please check it out

Heather B.

Yelp

L. L.

Yelp

Candice O.

Yelp

Smallest museum ever. I went here with my 5 year old son and walked through it in 10 min. He was expecting so much more, we ended up going down the hill to Science Time to fill up the afternoon.

Ben K.

Yelp

Anna P.

Yelp

Kids (ages 8 and 11) really enjoyed the museum, lots of hands on activities, particularly examining fossils. Spent a good 2-3 hours there.

Ariel T.

Yelp

Joe L.

Yelp

L L.

Yelp

Kyron S.

Yelp

Ok for kids, adults would find Wikipedia more engaging. Not really what I would expect out of a museum.

Scott D.

Yelp

Steve M.

Yelp

Great for kids of all ages...my son looks forward to it (and even requests it out of the blue). I even find myself "playing" with some of the exhibits. Great for an afternoon.

Constance B.

Yelp