Delaware Museum of Nature and Science

Address 4840 Kennett Pike (Route 52) Wilmington, DE 19807

The First State’s Natural World, Reimagined

Dinosaurs, Global Ecosystems, and Millions of Scientific Specimens on the Route 52 Corridor Near Winterthur

Delaware’s only natural history museum sits on Kennett Pike (Route 52) in the Greenville area — close enough to Winterthur Museum to share a road, but offering an entirely different kind of discovery. The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, known as DelMNS (and formerly the Delaware Museum of Natural History), reopened in 2022 after a complete two-year renovation of its galleries and public spaces, emerging as a thoroughly modernized institution with a fresh identity and a renewed focus on ecology, biodiversity, and the connections between all living things.

The museum is open daily, Monday through Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

There are no regular weekly closure days — the museum is open seven days a week. Holiday closures and special weather-related adjustments may apply; verify at delmns.org before visiting. Admission: General Admission (ages 3 and up): $14.50 | Toddlers ages 1–2: $4.25 | Under 12 months: Free. A 5% discount applies when paid with cash. Members receive free admission and additional benefits, including reciprocal admission at over 350 science museums (ASTC members) and 900+ museums (NARM members).

A Collection Founded by a Complicated Figure

The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science exists because of John Eleuthere du Pont — a member of the du Pont family who became a serious naturalist, collector, and philanthropist, eventually earning a doctorate in natural science in 1965 and authoring multiple books on ornithology. Du Pont founded the museum in 1957 and it opened to the public in 1972, anchored by the extraordinary natural history collections he had been building since childhood: seashells, birds, and bird eggs gathered over decades of fieldwork and acquisition.

Those collections remain the scientific backbone of the institution. The museum holds one of the largest mollusk collections and one of the largest bird egg collections in North America — scientific resources used by researchers from institutions around the world, stored in the collections facility above the public galleries. The bird egg collection is the second largest in North America.

The museum’s history is also inseparable from John du Pont’s later story, which ended in 1996 when he shot and killed Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz at his Foxcatcher Farm estate in Pennsylvania — a crime that led to a conviction for third-degree murder and his death in prison in 2010. The museum has continued its mission independently of that history, sustained by its collections, its community programs, and the generosity of subsequent donors and members.

Trivia: The museum held a star-naming contest in 1999. The winning entry — “The Delaware Diamond,” submitted by 12-year-old Wilmington resident Amy Nerlinger — was recognized by the Delaware General Assembly, and the star TYC 3429-697-1 became an official Delaware state symbol in 2000. It remains officially unofficial by astronomical standards, which feels very Delaware.

What’s Inside: The Renovated Galleries

The 2022 renovation completely reimagined the museum’s public spaces around a central organizing idea: nature connects us all. Every gallery, every exhibit, and every interactive element is designed to show how ecosystems relate to one another, how species dependencies operate, and how human choices affect the natural world.

Ellice & Rosa McDonald Foundation PaleoZone

Delaware’s only permanent dinosaur exhibit. The PaleoZone focuses specifically on creatures that lived in the Mid-Atlantic United States during the Cretaceous Period — making it not just a dinosaur exhibit but a local natural history story. Featured specimens include:

• Dryptosaurus — a large carnivorous dinosaur native to the eastern North American coastal plain; one of the few theropod dinosaurs known from this region
• Nyctosaur — the “bat lizard,” a flying pterosaur with a wingspan reaching over a meter
• Mosasaur — the aquatic giant that dominated the shallow Cretaceous sea that once covered the Delaware Valley
• Additional, smaller Cretaceous specimens are rounding out the regional portrait

The PaleoZone is the direct descendant of earlier dinosaur displays at the museum — and while earlier press materials referenced a Deinonychus skeleton (the real-world inspiration for Jurassic Park’s velociraptors), the current renovated exhibit centers on the Mid-Atlantic Cretaceous animals. Confirm current fossil display specifics at delmns.org.

Skylight Atrium and Tree of Life

The dramatic central atrium features a large-scale visual interpretation of the Tree of Life — depicting the evolutionary relationships between the seven kingdoms of life and over 1.6 million species. Mobile exhibit cases explore evolution and natural selection. It’s the kind of display that stops adults in their tracks as reliably as it stops children.

Global Journey Gallery

Immersive ecosystem environments from around the world, designed to show how different biomes function and how they connect to each other and to the Delaware Valley landscape.

Regional Journey Gallery

A floor map of Delaware allows visitors to literally walk across the state while exploring its diverse native ecosystems — temperate forests, coastal dunes, salt marshes, the bald cypress swamp, and the Delaware Bay. For Delaware residents, this gallery often produces genuine moments of recognition about the landscape they live in.

Discovery Gallery

Interactive hands-on science space with activities for a wide range of ages.

Nature Nook

A dedicated space for young children — toddlers and preschoolers — with age-appropriate natural world exploration activities.

Programs, Camps, and School Groups

DelMNS runs one of the most robust community education programs of any cultural institution in New Castle County:

• Discovery Tours for school and community groups, combining guided gallery tours with hands-on science activities and live animal encounters
• Summer Camps for ages 5–11, with science and nature themes
• School Day Off programs — drop-in full-day science programming on Delaware school holidays (pre-registration required)
• Scout programs aligned with badge requirements
• Homeschool programs throughout the year
• Adult programs, including behind-the-scenes collections tours and specialty workshops

The museum’s Rest, Relax & Recharge café — adjacent to the PaleoZone — offers sandwiches, salads, snacks, and beverages from Jamestown Catering, with a kids’ menu and a bottle warmer for caregivers with young children.

DelMNS in the Route 52 Cultural Corridor

The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science sits on Route 52 (Kennett Pike) between Wilmington and the Pennsylvania border — a stretch of road that also passes Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library (a few miles north) and connects directly to the Brandywine Valley’s broader network of cultural institutions. For families, the museum pairs naturally with Winterthur’s enchanted woods and gardens or with a visit to the Brandywine River Museum of Art across the border in Chadds Ford. For adults making a day trip, combining DelMNS with Mt. Cuba Center in nearby Hockessin covers both natural science and ecological horticulture in a single outing.