Drexel University and the Academy’s board closed the oldest natural history museum in the Americas on September 27, 2026, with thirty days’ notice. The people who run museums and care for collections across the country noticed. This is what they have said, newest first.
Letters and statements addressed to the coalition are posted here as we received them, with permission. Public posts link to the original.
A statement on natural history collection closures and collections at risk, naming the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.
Natural history collections are irreplaceable scientific infrastructure. They document biodiversity and environments across time and space and provide essential resources for research, education, conservation, climate science, agriculture, and public health.
An open letter to Drexel President Antonio Merlo, Academy Director Patricia Wellenbach and Mayor Cherelle Parker, signed by the society’s collection curator with its members and associates.
We the undersigned members of Monmouth Amateur Paleontologists’ Society (MAPS) and associates believe that the closing of Academy of Natural Sciences (ANS) would be a disaster for public education and scientific research.
The network’s position on the closure: it stands behind safeguarding the research collections and keeping the Academy’s outreach and educational displays open to all.
A statement from the presidents of District Council 47 and of Local 397, the largest local union of workers in Philadelphia’s museums and cultural organizations.
Like all the museums, libraries, zoos, and universities in this city, the Academy of Natural Sciences belongs first and foremost to the people who live and work here. The Academy of Natural Sciences museum must remain open to the public and its dedicated workers protected from the short-sighted layoffs decreed by the Board.
A statement on supporting access to the arts and sciences in communities, honoring the Academy as the nation’s oldest natural history museum as its public museum prepared to close.
A letter of support from the museum’s assistant director, the first institutional letter the coalition received.
Seeing a prehistoric skeleton firsthand or touching a real dinosaur bone creates a connection to the past that a classroom simply can’t.
A post on the future of the Academy’s building on the Parkway, alongside executive director Paul Steinke’s interview with the Philadelphia Business Journal.
A public statement the day after the September 8 rally.
The National Center for Science Education stands with the Academy of Natural Sciences. Keep the museum open!
Endorsed the coalition from the podium at the September 8 rally on the Parkway.
A post in support of keeping the museum open, with slides, shared with the society’s members.
A few words from the Wagner on the decision to close the museum, and on what is lost when one-of-a-kind cultural institutions shut down.
A post of support the day after the closure was announced.
A statement on the preservation of the Academy’s collections, published when the split between Drexel and the Academy first surfaced.
The scientific collections held by the Academy, including more than 19 million specimens of animals, plants, and minerals, constitute an irreplaceable resource to the national and international community.
If your museum, society, union, school or association is ready to say the museum must reopen, send us the statement and we will add it here, and send it to the officials deciding the Academy’s future.