Skip to content
BusinessesGrow
Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven, CT

Photo: ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

MuseumsFamily FavoriteRainy-Day PickFree

Yale Peabody Museum

170 Whitney Ave · New Haven, CT

Why you should go…

Founded in 1866, Yale's natural history museum reopened in March 2024 after a renovation that more than doubled its exhibition space. Galleries spread over three floors, with a mounted Brontosaurus skeleton, Rudolph Zallinger's 110-foot mural The Age of Reptiles, and rooms on Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and Andean and Mesoamerican civilizations. Admission is free and individual visitors need no tickets.

  • #natural history museum
  • #dinosaurs
  • #free museum
  • #yale

Good to know

General museums guidance

Habits that pay off across this whole category, not rules for this one venue. Always check the official site for the specifics.

  • Check the special exhibition separately

    Touring shows usually carry their own ticket and their own opening hours, listed apart from general admission.

  • Look for the free window

    Many museums run community days, member evenings, or discounted late openings. It is worth a look before you pay full price.

  • Travel light through the door

    Large bags and backpacks often have to go to a coat check, and lines for it move slowly at opening.

  • Weekday mornings beat weekend afternoons

    School groups clear out by early afternoon midweek, while weekends stay busy from late morning on.

What's around here?

The closest stops to Yale Peabody Museum, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.

  • Museums
    Free

    Yale University Art Gallery

    Free

    See van Gogh's The Night Cafe and art from ancient to modern in a free university museum on Chapel Street.

    0.9 mi awayMore like this

  • Eat & Drink
    Foodie Favorite

    Louis' Lunch

    Free

    Order a hamburger sandwich on toast, cooked in 1898 cast-iron vertical broilers, with no ketchup offered.

    0.9 mi awaySwitch it up: Eat & Drink

  • Eat & Drink
    Foodie Favorite

    Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana

    Under $25

    Order a coal-fired white clam pizza or original tomato pie at the 1925 Wooster Street pizzeria that started it all.

    1.0 mi awaySwitch it up: Eat & Drink

  • Attractions
    Family Favorite

    It Adventure Ropes Course

    $25–$50

    Indoor ropes course inside Jordan's Furniture in New Haven, with more than 100 elements, 180-foot zip rails and climbing walls on a five-story frame.

    2.2 mi awaySwitch it up: Attractions

  • Museums
    Family Favorite

    Dinosaur State Park

    Under $25

    Walk around a geodesic dome built over early Jurassic dinosaur footprints, then hike the trails through a Mesozoic-style arboretum.

    27 mi awayMore like this

  • Museums
    History Buff

    Connecticut River Museum

    Under $25

    A maritime history museum on the Essex, CT waterfront with a working replica of the first combat submarine.

    28 mi awayMore like this