March First Saturday: The Natural History Road Show

Are you a 21st century naturalist? Do you have natural materials collected on a personal expedition but can't figure out the scientific classification for your findings? Come have your specimens identified by a panel of experts at the Wagner’s Natural History Road Show! Visitors can meet and chat with scientists who specialize in insects, fossils, bones, shells, rocks, and minerals. If you don’t have a specimen to bring, see if you can stump the panelists with one of ours.

Our panelists include professor of biology Dr. Jason Downs, entomologist Greg Cowper, and others to be announced soon!

Additional activities throughout the day include exploring our natural history collection, completing a scavenger hunt, drawing in the museum, and digging up and identifying different types of shark teeth! Visitors may even take their found shark tooth home with them.

Dr. Jason Downs is the Philip Lian & Joan Mueller Professor of Paleontology and Geology at the Wagner Free Institute of Science. He is Professor of Biology at Delaware Valley University and a Research Associate at the Academy of Natural Sciences in the Vertebrate Paleontology Group, where he has done active research since 2006. At the Academy, he was one of the team members who discovered the Tiktaalik roseae, a specimen that shed new light on the vertebrate transition to land.

Greg Cowper is an Entomologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. He is one of the caretakers of the four million specimens that encompass the Academy’s insect collection. He assists in the curation of the Orthoptera section of the collection, the grasshoppers, crickets and katydids. In 2008 he began traveling to Southern Africa collecting and focusing on Orthoptera, studying grasshopper speciation, and adding new specimens and species to the collection. He is also a member of the Wagner's faculty, teaching courses on entomology and about the history of collecting.

• Walk-ins welcome! Advance registration speeds your entry to the museum. Visitors who register in advance do not need to present a ticket at the desk—just your name!

• There is no coat check or place to stow personal items – please travel light.

• The museum is located on the second floor of the building. There are 5 steps at the entryway and a flight of stairs to access the museum. It is not wheelchair accessible.

• To protect the specimens and our historic interiors, photography is not allowed in the museum. Open containers of food and drink are not permitted in the building.

• The Institute does not have a parking lot. Parking along Montgomery Avenue and 17th Street is free and there is no time limit. There is 2-hour free parking on Bouvier Street and on many blocks near the Wagner; there is metered parking on Cecil B. Moore Avenue. The nearest parking garage is at the Liacouras Center on 15th Street and Montgomery Avenue.

A dream that keeps growing…

In 1855, William Wagner had a dream of providing free science education to anyone who wanted to learn, regardless of background or ability to pay. Today, the Wagner offers more programs to more people than ever before! Your support helps us provide free education, not only through the museum, but through a wide range of courses, lectures, field trips, and children’s science programs. Donations also assist us in caring for the museum and library collections and in preserving our wonderful building, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990. To learn more about what we do please visit our website.

In keeping with its original charter, admission is FREE—donations are suggested to ensure the future and quality of Wagner's free education programs and to preserve its National Landmark building and collections.

Suggested Donations

$25/Family

$10/adult

$5/student

For any questions, please email communications@wagnerfreeinstitute.org or call 215-763-6529 x17.

If you would like to check your membership status or become a member, please email AbigailC@wagnerfreeinstitute.org or call 215-763-6529 x24.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Wagner Free Institute of Science