Carnegie Museum of Natural History

4.5 stars. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1895. It shares a building with the Carnegie Museum of Art, and when you purchase a ticket, you gain admission to both museums. Tickets can be purchased through the museum's website, and prices range from $0 for members and infants to $25 for non-member adults. Prices are discounted for children, students, and senior citizens. A parking garage is available and costs $10.

For many years, I have visited the CMNH off and on. For my most recent visit, I purchased a timed ticket through the museum's website, and I showed it to a courteous employee upon entry.

Current exhibitions include dinosaurs, birds, North American wildlife, African wildlife, Arctic life, mammals, amphibians and reptiles, minerals and gems, botany, American Indians, ancient Egypt, etcetera.

I recognized many exhibits from my visits in previous years, and these exhibits were in good condition but could perhaps be slightly updated. A couple exchibits were closed so conservators could clean or prepare future displays. As with my previous visit, I got lost in the maze of rooms, and I had to ask employees where to go! Tip: To access the dinosaur hall, walk through the gift shop.

In the gift shop, I bought a couple of items. The cashier did not say hello or thank you and did not give me a bag, but she did ask if I was a member, and she did accurately ring up my purchase.

The museum also has the Fossil Fuels restaurant, which sells salads, pizzas, sandwiches, cookies, and other simple foods. Furthermore, the museum rents space for private events.

I went to see the dinosaur's history with a few children. The Carnegie Museum does a great job with the stories, information, and visualizations.

My visit in February 2024 had a few closures such as the children's area and Egyptian exhibit.

Takeaway- pack light for the visit. Bags are allowed but must be worn on the front of your body "to avoid knocking anything down". So many thoughts about this but it would be an easier visit to go bag-free if possible.

We really enjoyed this
chicago has nothing compared to this
they have two rex here
the gem and mineral exhibit was by far the best collection we have seen
and we are rock hounds and owners of rocks and gems

worth it to see the gems alone

Decades ago I lived in Pittsburgh. It was the first city I lived in and I loved living in Oakland. I had fond memories of going to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and enjoying my time. The only other city I ever visited near this time was DC and I also enjoyed theirs, so basically I took for granted these museums because I just assumed every city has these type of museums. They do not.

Upon having a chance to visit again I desperately wanted to return to the Carnegie Museum to see if it was as awesome as I remembered. It was! My friends and I spent the day there walking slowly through each exhibit and stopping at the cafe for a break. I love the fossils and anything dinosaur related. I smiled listening to an employee speak passionately about his area of expertise and the museum's archived material. The geology exhibit was much more interesting to me as an adult than it was twenty odd years ago.

We walked to the art side and took in the paintings and exhibits as well. Everything was so well done from being clearly labeled to interesting exhibits. This is a fantastic museum and well worth visiting a hundred times over!

A day well spent! You should definitely set aside at least half a day for the museum. It's connected to the art museum so you could easily split your day half/half between each. We had about 4 hours at the museum and we pretty much finished looking through the entire natural history side of things. However, it was nearing closing time and I wanted to take a look at the art museum, so we kind of did a speedrun through the last natural history exhibit we had yet to see. Even so, that only left us with twenty-isn minutes to see the art side of things which was a bit of a bummer.

The natural history museum is filled with giant dinosaur fossils, beautiful rocks and minerals, impressive dioramas, and more. It's a place that can keep any age interested. There are three floors and we spent the most time looking through dinosaurs and rocks. It's crazy to imagine how so many of the beautiful rocks on display were formed naturally. My favorite was the glowing rocks. As for the dinosaurs, they're almost always the most iconic parts of natural history museums. I liked how the museum allowed visitors to peer through some glass into a lab. No one was working at the time, but it was cool to see components of the current fossil project on display. In addition to dinosaur fossils, there were also cool exhibits detailing the evolution of animals to the ones we see today.

Overall, I wish I had gone to the museum earlier in the day because I really need to come back and explore some more. It's a fascinating place, great for all ages.

When my parents were in town we decided to go. Since living in the pittsburgh area for 3 years it's something I haven't done so I was pretty excited. I don't know what I was expecting but it certainly exceeded it. We only did the Natural History portion but there was so much to see. It took us a majority of the afternoon to just do that. My mom had a blast taking selfies with the dinosaurs and my dad enjoyed the history bits. I'm already trying to plan my next trip because I really wanna see the art side of the museum.

One of Pittsburgh's finest gems!! If you haven't checked out this museum yet, what are you waiting for?? This has everything kids and adults would enjoy. My personal favorites are the dinosaur exhibit and the Egyptian exhibit. You really feel like you're heading back into time when visiting here. Make sure you leave yourself enough time because you could truly spend hours and hours here!!

The food is a meh to me. But I don't come here for the food- I come for the artifacts! Can't wait until my next visit!

It is in the same building (art museum), you just pass through the hall and you are in the history section. It is one of 4 Carnegie Institute museums located in Pittsburgh. If you love dinosaurs, nature, wildlife, and history, then this is definitely the one to put near the top of your bucket list.

The museum's central exhibit is a collection of authentic dinosaur fossils and some reproductions, including a Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops. most well known for its expansive dinosaur fossil collection, an impressive 1300+ piece mineral, and gem collection, and dozens of realistic dioramas spotlighting wildlife in North America and Africa

One of the finest collections and displays of gems and minerals in the world can be found at CMNH.

Entry fee: Adults $19.95, children 3-18 $11.95, under 2 free. At the same fee, you can also see an art museum.
Parking: We did street side parking, its free on Sunday

I went here on December 9, 2023 and it was one of the coolest experiences. The staff was very nice and the displays were so interesting. This museum is a neat place for people of all ages.

Endless displays of dinosaurs, taxidermy, minerals, plus more! The breath of exhibits was rather impressive and offers sufficient categories that would pique the different interests of folks. I thought the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems was neat, as well as the recreated dioramas of animals in their habitats.

A $20 ticket covers the Carnegie Museum of Art too as exhibitions are entwined within the same space. Those who are Bank of America cardholders can obtain complimentary admission during the first weekend of each month.

I had booked a Thursday 2 PM ticket and was granted entry despite coming in an hour early. Unfortunately my visit collided with school field trips, so the museum was packed with students yelling and running around everywhere. Hence I primarily did a walkthrough and left after 1.5 hours. Security guards are stationed in many sections and enforce that backpacks be worn on the front.