September 2026 has been a pretty dispiriting month for American paleontologists. In early September, Drexel University gave a surprise announcement that the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) would be closing its doors at the end of the month - now just a few days away. And, just this week, news leaked that the Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, would be closing sometime in the next 3-8 months. These are both important museums, and the ANSP is one of the oldest museums in the country - founded in the early 19th century. You may be asking yourself the following questions: 1) What the hell is going on? and 2) What can I do about it? I will address each of these below.
I've never visited either museum, and I would very much like to - and, as a caveat, I know I'm missing something here as I am strictly an outsider just doing my part to help. If I'm missing something critical, leave a comment.
From Save the Academy.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
The ANSP is one of the oldest museums in the country, and is frequently referred to as the oldest natural history museum in the US - Charleston Museum in South Carolina was founded in 1773, but had a broader scope than natural history. ANSP gets to claim this achievement, being founded in 1812. Philadelphia had begun as the first capitol of the United States and was still very much the intellectual center of our nascent country. Many of the oldest fossils found and studied in the US were catalogued here - recall that the Smithsonian would not be founded for many decades, and most of the early paleontological collections at the Smithsonian post-date the US Civil War. US President Thomas Jefferson was a member of the Academy, having studied fossils of ice age mammals earlier in his career. The museum houses such famous specimens and collections as the holotype of Hadrosaurus foulkii from the late Cretaceous of New Jersey, botanical specimens from the Lewis and Clark expedition as well as from James Cook's voyages, part of Edward Drinker Cope's collections, the third largest collection of mollusk shells in the world, Jefferson's fossil collection, and the ANSP inherited all of the specimens previously curated by the American Philosophical Society. More recent discoveries include the holotype of the "fishapod" Tiktaalik. The ANSP reportedly suffered financially during the 2008 financial meltdown, and Drexel University stepped in and took over management of the museum.
The home of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia since the gilded age. From the official ANSP website.
Sternberg Museum of Natural History
The Sternberg Museum of Natural History (hereafter, Sternberg) was founded around world war 1 and initially filled with fossils collected by the famous Sternberg family, who had been collecting fossils from the Niobrara Chalk since the 1870s. Unlike the ANSP, the museum was always run by Fort Hays State University (FHSU), and evolved and expanded; in 1990, it was merged together with the Museum of the High Plains into its current form.
The Sternberg Museum of Natural History - from the Sternberg official website.
The Sternberg is famous for its unparalleled collection of late Cretaceous marine reptiles, sharks, bony fish, and pterosaurs - most famously from the Niobrara Chalk. Tylosaurus, Xiphactinus, Squalicorax, Pteranodon - the best known specimens of all of these are from the chalk. One of the most famous examples is the "fish within a fish" - a Xiphactinus skeleton from an individual that died shortly after swallowing a "smaller" fish, Gillicus, whole; the Gillicus was eaten head first, its tail just behind the operculum of the Xiphactinus. Paleontologist Mike Everhart staked his entire career on studying the fossils of the chalk and other Cretaceous units, writing dozens of articles, and maintaining a prominent website with the provocative title "Oceans of Kansas". He later wrote a book of the same title - Mike was signing copies in 2005 at my very first SVP, and I still have the signed copy on my shelf. It's an excellent book, and it outlines the incredible fossil record at the Sternberg and from the chalk. We know more about the ecology and food web of the Niobrara Chalk than we do for nearly any marine vertebrate fossil assemblage on earth: bite marks indicating the bitten and the bitee; many skeletons with gut contents, even preserving gastric acid dissolution of the prey bones and teeth; identifiable bones preserved in coprolites; bite marks; skeletons bitten in half (by bigger predators) - an incredible food web including mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, sharks, bony fish, pterosaurs, marine birds, mollusks, and even floating dinosaur corpses that had been scavenged.
The famous "fish within a fish" - from the Sternberg Museum website.
Beyond simply what the Sternberg has in its collection, the museum has a reputation for being one of the key paleontological powerhouses in the great plains, and many of my friends and colleagues have gone to graduate school there. Our friend from Montana State, Dr. Laura Wilson, was the curator there for years and trained an entire cohort of graduate students under her watch that are now paleontologists in their own right - and spread, quite literally, across the globe. Another incredible program at the Sternberg are the Sternberg Science Camps - a unique outdoor education experience for high school students wishing to learn how to be a paleontologist - that I wish I had access to in the late 1990s. Many of my colleagues, including one we went out drinking with just last night, has taught at these camps - run, at present, by our colleague David Levering.
Announced Closures
The two impending closures went public in very, very different ways. Drexel made an announcement, which apparently was a surprise to many of its staff, indicating that the museum would be closed in only four weeks. That closure date is September 30 - this coming Wednesday. The university has been rather opaque about it, despite surprisingly loud public outcry and activism. The university has stated that this closure will only affect the public-facing exhibits part of the museum, but that research and collections would be preserved. One insider suggested on social media that the university is not being honest, and, citing recent relationships established with developers, posted that the university was wishing to sell the building to a commercial real estate developer. Responses from the university to the public outcry and protest have been anything other than reassuring. Few details have emerged, and the university has not revealed the financial reasoning behind the decision. The short timespan is immediately suspicious, and suggests that the university wished to pull the rug out from underneath the museum at a speed too quick for the public - or ANSP staff - to mobilize. Many critics have highlighted the lack of transparency from the university, and the lack of willingness to explore alternative approaches to keeping the museum open. It seems as though someone made the decision to close the museum as a foregone conclusion, without the possibility for public discussion.
More disturbing is the revelation that today (September 29) the William Penn Foundation offered to fully fund the ANSP for one additional year, to keep the museum running until a different solution can be found - and it seems as though Drexel has inexplicably refused this offer: A Drexel spokesperson did not specify whether the university had declined the offer, but said: “No proposal has been presented that would provide a permanent, sustainable path forward for the Academy’s museum. We sincerely appreciate the many ideas and expressions of support."
Unlike the ANSP, there was no formal announcement from FHSU about the Sternberg. Instead, early last week, perhaps Monday, museum staff were privately informed by the university that the institution would be shuttering the museum, perhaps in December 2026. An anonymous museum employee posted this on social media the same day, and a short article went out on September 22 in the Hays Post, announcing the closure. A longer article about the alleged decision by FHSU to close the Sternberg was published two days later in the Wichita Eagle.
When asked about the closure, FHSU Senior Advisor for Executive Operations, Eric Grospitch, offered the following words of courage: "I can neither confirm nor deny". The article indicates that FHSU president Tisa Mason will be making an announcement about it on Monday, September 28. The article also points out that Grospitch was asked some basic questions about the museum's budget, to which he did not know the answer, though he did acknowledge that there was a $2.4 million dollar budget crunch.
The facebook post made the same day that news leaked that the Sternberg Museum at FHSU was going to be shut down.
As an aside, the same morning, the Fort Hays State University Foundation - the organization responsible for fundraising - publicized the opening of the Bickle-Schmidt Athletic Complex on their facebook page, an 11.5 million "state-of-the-art, 110 acre sports facility [featuring sixteen full-sized competition fields, comfortable spectator areas, and convenient concessions and restrooms]" - virtually all of the comments are from members of the public, and paleontologists, demanding similar support for the Sternberg. It's not a good look. And, before anyone says "you can't tell the alumni what to donate to" - well, actually, you can - the foundation sets the agenda and the priority targets for fundraising.
In contrast to FHSU's opacity, a concerned advocate for the museum drafted a financial critique, outlining a number of basic questions that FHSU administrators should be expected, at minimum, to have clear answers for before progressing with the planned closure - you can read the critique here.
During a September 26 City Council Meeting, FHSU president Mason stated that "difficult decisions have already been made to preserve the student experience and the future of FHSU" - and members of the public simply want to know what those decisions are, and why.
It is unknown what the university intends to do with the collections, and there are some rather awful rumors flying about which I hope are not true, but sadly would not surprise me. I won't repeat them here until they end up being confirmed or alleged in a news article.
What can you do?
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: Supporters of the museum got organized in record time, and set up "Save the Academy" and have already led several demonstrations and protests in support of the museum. Visit the website and look for ways to volunteer. Additionally, as of the last couple of days, the deputy mayor was appointed to oversee the museum, and her office has apparently been 'counting' the letters of support coming in. Dr. Sarah McAnulty, who is helping lead the charge to save the academy, wrote:
"If you care about keeping the Academy of Natural Sciences open to the public in Philadelphia, I need you to read and share this thread. Trish Wellenbach was sent from the mayor's office to oversee the Academy of Natural sciences situation. She needs to hear from us. Here comes the action item: Send heartfelt *not angry* messages about why the Academy should stay open. She needs help demonstrating wide community support. Send your personal reasons why Academy has been important to you and your family, as well as Philadelphia as a whole. Add an anecdote if you can, and finish with saying that you do not want the public facing museum to close. Send to tw958@drexel.edu We heard FROM HER that this is important. Now get typing!!"
Sternberg Museum of Natural History: There is a petition titled "Save the Sternberg Museum of Natural History from Closure" on Change.org, here. The petition has already been publicized in the Hays Post, and includes a list of meaningful contacts with their contact information - university administrators and relevant politicians. If interested, I recommend keeping letters informative and positive.
And most importantly, if you feel that signing petitions and writing letters isn't enough - post about it! Write about it! Be loud! The more people who know and push back, the more likely we are as a field to keep these two institutions.
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