September 08, 2026
Kristin Hunt/PhillyVoice
Philly residents, scientists and lawmakers urge Drexel University to save the Academy of Natural Sciences museum on Tuesday morning. The museum is slated to close Sept. 30.
Demonstrators gathered outside the Academy of Natural Sciences on Tuesday morning to protest the museum's imminent closure — and call on its steward Drexel University to reverse course.
The crowd of roughly 200 people, which included a boy in an inflatable dinosaur costume and a cat named Boo, shouted punny chants for about an hour outside the museum on Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Signs featured colorful drawings of dragonflies and brontosauruses. Numerous attendees wore souvenir T-shirts from the museum or button-downs with animal prints. But the whimsical accessories could not hide a visceral anger at the academy and Drexel leadership for planning to close the nearly 200-year-old natural history museum, the nation's oldest, at the end of the month due to financial difficulties.
MORE: How the wildlife dioramas revolutionized the Academy of Natural Sciences
"If this is an emergency, then act like it's an emergency," said Amanda Rabinowitz, an organizer with Philadelphia Science Action. "Spend down your endowment. The value of a university is not its Moody's credit rating. The value of a university is the education it provides, the public it serves and the knowledge it preserves."
Rabinowitz, who asked Drexel and the academy's board to "dig deep and do the right thing," was not alone in implying the partners aren't exhausting their options to save the museum. Several speakers accused the museum's leadership of poor planning or unacceptable complacency. Others, including Councilmember Nina Ahmad, suggested the university meant to sell the building for luxury housing development.
"Guess what they want to do to this?" Ahmad, a Democratic at-large council member, asked the crowd. "They want to shutter it, mothball this and then you'll have to have appointments to come and see it at some godforsaken place. OK? That's what they're doing, taking it away from our children. What are they going to do with the building? Think about that. Do we need new condominiums on Museum Row?"
Handmade protest signs feature roaring dinosaurs or highlight the museum's programming, like the annual Bug Fest, at Tuesday's rally to save the Academy of Natural Sciences.
Ahmad and her council colleague Jeffrey Young, Jr. further expressed outrage that the academy and university hadn't contacted them sooner for help. Young, a Democrat whose Fifth District includes the museum, said he did not receive a call from leadership until the day the closure was announced. To prevent redevelopment, he suggested rezoning the area "so it can never be used as apartments or condos or anything like that."
Ahmad proposed numerous ways to keep the museum open in its current location, including obtaining a bond based on the endowment or emergency grants available through the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development and the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. Citing the example of the Barnes Foundation, she also suggested Drexel petition to have the museum's restricted endowment lifted through the Orphans' Court.
Drexel University did not immediately clarify if it had pursued Ahmad's suggestions, or when it contacted Young about the closure.
News of the museum's shutdown last week prompted widespread backlash. Mayor Cherelle Parker later said she was working with Gov. Josh Shapiro and Drexel to "preserve the essential mission" of the Academy of Natural Sciences, a scientific society that dates back to 1812. It was unclear if the museum, which opened in 1828, was included in this plan. A petition calling on Drexel to "uphold its commitment" to the academy has netted 4,289 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a national professional organization for fossil scientists, declared its support for the museum in an Instagram post directing followers to contact Shapiro, Parker and Ahmad. The organizers of Tuesday's rally have recommended similar action through a freshly launched "Save the Academy" website.
Their demonstration tapped several scientists and educators to illustrate the museum's wider impact.
Mazzi Aquilla, founder of Climate Action Careers, spoke of the institution's free Women in Natural Sciences program that launched her into the STEM field; with the impending closure, WINS is now seeking support to reach its 45th year in operation. Isa Betancourt worked in the museum's entomology department for a decade before becoming a National Geographic Explorer.
Most of the people who stepped up to the podium — including Councilmember Rue Landau (D-At-Large) and state Sen. Chris Rabb (D-200th District) — had fond personal memories of exploring the museum as a child or with their children. They also worried about the ramifications of closing a natural sciences museum in the age of AI and rampant misinformation.
"We know that keeping a museum open in a crumbling nation is hard," said Sarah McAnulty, a squid biologist and organizer of the rally. "But sometimes things are hard, and you have to do them anyway."
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