Accessibility at the Museum

81st Street/Rose Center for Earth and Space: Enter the Rose Center at 81st Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Coat check service available. Entrance for special events and programs if specified on ticket. Accessible by wheelchair.

81st Street/Parking Garage: Located at 56 West 81st Street, adjacent to the Rose Center entrance.

For Access-A-Ride service and GPS devices use the following address:

56 West 81st Street, New York, NY 10024

ADDITIONAL ENTRANCES AND EXITS

77th Street: During regular hours, exit on the first floor to 77th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Entrance for special events and education programs if specified on ticket. Accessible by wheelchair.

Central Park West (ground level): During regular hours, exit to Central Park West at 79th Street. Enter for special events and education programs if specified on ticket. Accessible by wheelchair.

*Please note: The 81st Street/Museum of Natural History (B and C trains) subway station and subway entrance to the Museum are not wheelchair accessible. The closest accessible subway station is the 72nd Street station (1, 2, and 3 trains), with a connection on the northbound M7 on Amsterdam Avenue.

Lower level:

• Near the subway entrance
• Rose Center for Earth and Space

First floor:

• Milstein Hall of Ocean Life (located on hall's lower level, access via elevator on mezzanine level)
• Rose Center for Earth and Space
• Near the Grand Gallery (family and gender-neutral restroom)

Fourth floor:

• Wallach Orientation Center

Non-motorized wheelchairs are available for visitors to use at no cost, on a first-come, first-served basis.

You can find them in three places:

1. At the Membership Desk directly inside the 81st Street/Rose Center entrance
2. At the main entrance on Central Park West (upstairs)
3. In the parking garage  

Visitors borrowing a wheelchair must present a photo ID and provide a telephone number.

CAPTIONING AND LISTENING DEVICES

Rear Window Captioning (RWC) is available in the LeFrak Theater for most films. Please see the theater attendant for a panel.

Closed-captioning glasses are available for the Hayden Planetarium Dark Universe Space Show and Field Trip to the Moon Space Show. Please email [email protected] at least one day in advance to confirm availability.

Transcripts for the Space Show and the Big Bang presentation in the Hayden Planetarium, and for LeFrak Theater films are available as downloadable PDFs (below).

Induction loop hearing systems are available upon request in the following locations:

• Special Exhibition Gallery 3
• Special Exhibition Gallery 4 (The LeFrak Family Gallery)

Infrared assistive listening devices (headsets and/or neck loops) are available upon request in the following locations:

• The Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak Theater
• Kaufmann and Linder Theaters
• Hayden Planetarium Space Theater
• Special Exhibition Gallery 3
• Special Exhibition Gallery 4 (The LeFrak Family Gallery)

SIGN LANGUAGE TOURS

Experience informative, entertaining, and inspiring presentations of permanent and special exhibitions for both deaf and hearing audiences with simultaneously signed and spoken tours. Find out about upcoming sign language tours.

SCIENCE SENSE TOURS

Visitors who are blind or partially sighted are invited to attend this program, held monthly in the halls of the American Museum of Natural History. Specially trained Museum tour guides highlight specific themes and exhibits, engaging participants through extensive verbal descriptions and touchable objects. Science Sense tours are available to individuals or groups. Find out about upcoming tours for the blind or partially sighted.

TOUCHABLE EXHIBITS

This list of touchable objects in the permanent exhibition halls has been created for a sighted person to assist people who are blind or have low vision in locating these exhibits.

Note: The Discovery Room on the first floor has touchable exhibits specially geared toward children.

Objects in each hall are listed in alphabetical order. Objects may be off view for conservation or, in some cases, halls may be closed because of special events.

LOWER LEVEL

Cullman Hall of the Universe

• Willamette Meteorite

FIRST FLOOR

Ross Hall of Meteorites

• Ahnighito (Cape York meteorite)
• Canyon Diablo (AMNH 5030)
• Canyon Diablo (AMNH 2235)
• Dog (Cape York meteorite)
• Estacado
• Gibeon (AMNH 285)
• Gibeon (Mass)
• Gibeon (Slab)
• Guffey (Mass)
• Guffey (Slab)
• Woman (Cape York meteorite)

Lincoln Ellsworth Corridor (Opposite the Discovery Room)

• Bust of Lincoln Ellsworth

Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth

There are more than 100 specimens on display, most of which are touchable. These includes a banded iron formation, petrified wood, and sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks.

• Bronze Earth (model)

Hall of Biodiversity

• Chloroplast (model)
• Cyanobacteria (model)
• Diatom (model)
• Earthworm (model)
• Frog head (model)
• Front leg of a honeybee (model)
• Fungi decomposing a leaf (model)
• Giant clam shell (model)
• Nematode head (model)
• Roots (model)

Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life

Entrance to this hall is on the first floor but all the touchable objects are found on lower level. Please use stairs or elevator to reach the lower level.

• Common Loon webbed foot (model)
• Coral polyps (model)
• Dolphin flipper skeleton (model)
• Oyster shell with pearl (model)
• Squid tentacle (model)
• Walrus tusk (model)
• Rose Center for Earth and Space

Near exit of Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway

• Bronze Moon (model)

Spitzer Hall of Human Origins

• Australopithecus africanus upper jaw and teeth (cast)
• Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) limb (cast)
• Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) foot (cast)
• Family Tree - 16 Hominidae skull casts (not all are in reach)
• Goliath frog (Conraua goliath) limb (cast)
• Hammerheaded fruit bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus) limb (cast)
• Harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) limb (cast)
• Homo habilis foot (cast)
• Human (Homo sapiens) foot (cast)
• Human (Homo sapiens) limb (2) (cast)
• Human(Homo sapiens) left hand (cast)
• Methanococcus jannaschii, Archaea (model)
• Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) foot (cast)
• Notharctus tenebrosus grasping hand on deck (cast)
• Nuclear DNA and Cell (parts of cell are indistinguishable by touch) (model)
• Paranthropus boisei upper jaw and teeth (cast)
• Paranthropus robustus skullcap (cast)
• Plesiadapis cookei jaw/teeth on deck (cast)
• Spider monkey hand and tail grasping branch (model)
• Streptococcus agalactiae bacteria (model)

Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall

• Theodore Roosevelt sculpture 

SECOND FLOOR

Akeley Hall of African Mammals

• Ivory elephant tusks

Stout Hall of Asian Peoples

• Code of Hammurabi (cast)
• Wood carving of the God Vishnu's world dance
• Wood carving of Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu, in cosmic dance

Hall of Mexico and Central America

• Aztec-style depiction of a standing man
• Kneeling figure from the Husatec region
• Reclining figure with bird features
• Replica of Tomb 104, Monte Albá
• Replicas of Stela E and Stela F monuments

Hall of South American Peoples

• Giant tree with plank buttresses spotted with fungi
• Scales of the Universe

Models:

• Blue Supergiant Star Rigel
• Earth
• Globular Star Cluster
• Hayden Sphere
• Human brain
• Hydrogen atom
• Kuiper belt of comets
• Local group of galaxies
• Meteor crater
• Milky Way Galaxy
• Oort cloud of comets
• Raindrop
• Red blood cell
• Rhinovirus
• Saturn's moon Janus
• Sun
• Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies

THIRD FLOOR

Hall of Primates

• Bust of gorilla (sculpture)

FOURTH FLOOR

Breezeway between the Halls of Vertebrate Origins and Saurischian Dinosaurs

• Grasping hand (model)
• Hole in the hip socket (model)

Hall of Vertebrate Origins

• Amniotic egg (model)
• Antorbital openings in the head (model)
• Brain case and backbone (model)
• Great white shark tooth
• Jaws (model)
• Palatal openings in the mouth (model)
• Plesiosaur vertebra
• Teleost fish with enameled scales
• Tetrapod (four limbs) (model)

Milstein Hall of Advanced Mammals

• Amphicyon footprint (cast)
• Elephant tooth comparison display; modern elephant, mammoth and mastodon
• Eyesockets near front of skull (model)
• Horse tooth comparison display - Equus, Mesohippus and Hydracotherium
• Stirrup-shaped stapes (model)
• Ungulates (model)

Wallach Orientation Center

• Braincase and backbone (model)
• Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs
• Ankylosaur armor plate
• Backward pointing pubis bone (model)
• Dinosaur egg
• Inset rows of teeth (model)
• Pachycephalosaurus wyomingenis skull
• Stegosaurus stenops dorsal plate

Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs

• Deinonychus antirrhopus claw (cast)
• Juvenile Apatosaurus excelsus humerus
• Sauropod tooth
• Theropod tooth
• Three-fingered hand (model)
• Three-toed foot (model)
• Tyrannosaurus rex lower jaw (cast)

Hall of Primitive Mammals

• Amniotic egg (model)
• Gomphotherium productum humerus
• Placenta (model)
• Synapsid opening (model)
• Three middle ear bones (model)

EXHIBITION HALLS WITH NO TOUCHABLE OBJECTS ON DISPLAY

FIRST FLOOR

• Warburg Hall of New York State Environment
• Hall of North American Forests
• Northwest Coast Hall
• Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals

SECOND FLOOR

• Hall of Birds of the World
• Hall of African Peoples
• Hall of Asian Mammals

THIRD FLOOR

• Hall of Plains Indians
• Hall of Eastern Woodlands Indians
• Sanford Hall of North American Birds
• Hall of New York State Mammals
• Hall of New York City Birds
• Hall of Reptiles and Amphibians

DISCOVERY SQUAD TOURS

The Discovery Squad is a unique tour program designed for families affected by autism spectrum disorders. The program was developed in collaboration with the Seaver Autism Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 

On select Saturday mornings, families can attend a 40-minute tour led by specially trained tour guides, then spend some time exploring the Discovery Room before the Museum opens to the public. Families are invited to stay after the tour and enjoy the Museum when it opens to the public at 10 am. 

Tours are open to 5–14-year-olds with autism spectrum disorders. Each child must be accompanied by an adult. 

Time: 9 am–10:30 am 

Tickets: Free 

Find out about upcoming tours.

Space is limited and advance registration is required. Walk-ins will not be accepted. Programs may be subject to change. 

To register for a Discovery Squad tour, please call Central Reservations at 212-769-5200, Monday–Friday, 9 am–5 pm.