Texas Science & Natural History Museum

What Texas Science & Natural History Museum does

Texas Science & Natural History Museum is a nonprofit natural history museum located on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Commissioned by the Texas Legislature in 1936 and opened to the public on January 15, 1939, the museum was transferred to UT Austin in 1959 and is now part of the College of Natural Sciences. After a major renovation and rebrand from Texas Memorial Museum, it reopened on September 23, 2023 with modernized exhibits. The museum operates 23 employees and houses irreplaceable paleontological and geological collections, including 113-million-year-old dinosaur trackways from the Paluxy River and a 33-foot Quetzalcoatlus pterosaur display.

The museum generates earned revenue through five main streams: ticket sales and group/field trip admissions ($3-8 per visitor by category), a six-tier membership program ranging from $40 Individual to $2,500 Memorial Circle (with NARM/ASTC reciprocal benefits at the Household tier and above), private venue rentals of the Art Deco Great Hall (up to 240 standing) and Natural Resources Plaza (up to 500 standing) for weddings, corporate events, and galas, an on-site museum store, and educational programming. Distribution is primarily in-person at the single Austin location, supplemented by Blackbaud-powered online ticketing and direct outreach for group bookings. A new Sarah and Ernest Butler Dinosaur Trackways Building is under construction (opening October 2027).

The institution is funded through a combination of university appropriations, Texas Legislature funding, private philanthropy (including lead gifts from the Butler family and grants from the Still Water Foundation, Simons Foundation, and UT Green Fund), corporate sponsorship (H-E-B Free Fourth Sundays), and earned income. It serves families with children, K-12 schools, educators, UT Austin's university community, event planners, and tourists, drawing visitors from all 50 US states and 28 countries in its first year post-reopening. Technology is largely experiential rather than core, with one AI-assisted mixed-reality exhibit (EchoVision, launched Sept 2025) and one scripted interactive game (Texas Long, Long Ago).

Name

Texas Science & Natural History Museum

Legal name

Texas Science & Natural History Museum

Website

https://sciencemuseum.utexas.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1936

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Texas Science & Natural History Museum is a nonprofit university museum on the UT Austin campus that exhibits Texas paleontology, wildlife, and geology through permanent and rotating exhibits, charging admissions, memberships, venue rentals, and educational programming. It serves families, K-12 schools, the UT community, and event clients.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Natural History Museum

NAICS

Museums (712110), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (7121)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Science & Technology Museums (THAJADAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Natural History Museums (THAJADAC), Museum, Zoo & Attraction Gift Shops (CRALAJAG)

Keywords

• Natural history museum
• Paleontology exhibits
• Educational field trips
• Museum venue rental
• Museum membership program

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Museum Admission and Memberships: The museum generates revenue through ticket sales for general admission and group visits, as well as annual membership subscriptions at multiple tiers providing free admission, parking validation, and exclusive benefits.
2. Event Venue Rentals: The museum rents its spaces (Great Hall, Natural Resources Plaza, full museum access) for private events including weddings, corporate events, galas, and receptions, generating revenue from facility use fees.
3. Museum Store Retail: The museum operates a retail gift shop selling science and nature-themed merchandise, toys, books, jewelry, and UT-branded products. Members receive 10% discount.
4. Educational Programs and Services: Revenue from field trip programs, guided tours, scavenger hunts, and special educational programming.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Texas Science & Natural History Museum operates a natural history museum on The University of Texas at Austin campus, offering permanent and rotating exhibits on Texas paleontology, geology, wildlife, and astronomy. It sells admissions and memberships, runs educational field trips and guided tours, rents Art Deco event spaces for weddings and corporate functions, and operates an on-site museum store.

Product overview

Texas Science & Natural History Museum is a natural history museum on The University of Texas at Austin campus offering permanent and rotating exhibits, educational programs, venue rentals, and membership. The museum features core exhibits including the Texas Titans (featuring a 33-foot pterosaur and tyrannosaur), the reimagined Epic Encounters paleontology gallery with digital animations and interactive games, the Texas Wildlife Gallery with historic dioramas, the Texas Transformation Gallery, and the Geology Gallery. Major special exhibits include Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats (fourth floor, open through 2027) and Big Eye on Dark Skies featuring the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The museum offers venue rental of its Art Deco spaces for events, group visit programs with discounted admission, a membership program with multiple tiers, and special programming including yoga classes, fossil identification events, and mixed reality experiences. A new Sarah and Ernest Butler Dinosaur Trackways Building is under construction (opening 2027) to house 113-million-year-old dinosaur tracks.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Texas Science & Natural History Museum (admissions) Natural history museum on The University of Texas at Austin campus showcasing Texas' natural history from planet formation through the age of dinosaurs to present day. Offers general admission ticketing to the public.
• Epic Encounters Reimagined ground-floor paleontology exhibit featuring fossil displays, immersive design, interactive experiences, large-scale digital animations bringing eight extinct animals to life, and the Texas Long, Long Ago choose-your-own-adventure game.
• Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats Fourth-floor immersive exhibit exploring the lives, diversity and ecological importance of bats through lifelike models, engaging interactives and compelling storytelling. Open through August 2027.
• Sarah and Ernest Butler Dinosaur Trackways Building New approximately 2,000-square-foot building under construction to house conserved 113-million-year-old dinosaur trackways discovered near Glen Rose, Texas. Will allow visitors to walk around the trackways for the first time. Opening October 2027.
• Discovery Center Hands-on paleontology exhibit adjacent to the paleontology gallery where visitors can explore real fossil specimens and engage in scientific thinking through interactive exhibit stations.
• Texas Titans Great Hall exhibit featuring a 33-foot wingspan pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus northropi, the largest flying creature to ever live, and a 33-foot tyrannosaur skeleton.
• Texas Wildlife Gallery Third-floor gallery featuring historical to present-day Texas wildlife in immersive dioramas depicting animals in natural environments across varied ecoregions.
• Big Eye on Dark Skies: Hobby-Eberly Telescope Third-floor exhibit featuring a scale model of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), the largest optical telescope in North America. Explains spectroscopy, exoplanet searches, and the HET Dark Energy Experiment.
• Texas Transformation Gallery Main floor exhibit exploring Texas' shifting environmental identity over the past 600 million years through imagery, skulls, and paleogeographic time-lapse animation.
• Geology Gallery Gallery showcasing geological and paleontological treasures including meteorites, tektites, agates, and significant fossils with extraordinary preservation.
• Museum Membership Program Annual membership program with six tiers (Individual $40, Dual $70, Household $120, Quetzalcoatlus $500, Centennial $1,000, Memorial Circle $2,500) offering free admission, validated parking, discounts, and reciprocal museum benefits through NARM and ASTC.
• Venue Rental Event venue rental services including the Great Hall (seated capacity 120, standing 240), Natural Resources Plaza (seated 240, standing 500), and full museum access for weddings, galas, corporate events, and private parties.
• Group Visits and Field Trips Discounted group admission for groups of 10+ including self-guided visits (up to 135 guests), guided tours (up to 25 people), and guided scavenger hunts. School field trips with TEKS-aligned educational programming are supported by Title I grant funding.
• Museum Store Gift shop offering science and nature-themed gifts, jewelry, toys, games, books, UT-branded merchandise, and educational items. Members receive 10% discount.
• EchoVision: A Mixed Reality Bat Experience Immersive mixed reality experience where participants wear custom bat-shaped headsets and use their voices to visualize sound as it bounces off the environment, revealing how bats navigate using echolocation. Features AI-assisted interpretations of bat vocalizations.
• Fossil Flow Yoga One-of-a-kind yoga class held in the museum's Great Hall in partnership with Fitness Institute of Texas. 45-minute all-levels class followed by free museum admission.

Quantifiable outcome

• Record attendance of 75,000+ visitors in first year since reopening
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability4 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core, historical and supporting.

• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower CentercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2023Collaborated on design and installation of the museum's Pollinator Garden featuring native Texas plants. The Wildflower Center's horticulture team designed the garden to transform the entrance area into a habitat for pollinators and wildlife.
• Fitness Institute of TexascoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with the museum to offer Fossil Flow yoga classes held in the museum's Great Hall. Classes are open to all levels with yoga mats provided.
• McKinney York ArchitectscoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerArchitectural firm providing design services and renderings for the Sarah and Ernest Butler Dinosaur Trackways Building project.
• American Museum of Natural HistoryhistoricalStrategic or Co-development PartnerReceived one of the two limestone slabs with dinosaur tracks from Paluxy River in 1940, with the other remaining at AMNH in New York.
• UT Astronomy Student Association (ASA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated on live spectroscopy demonstrations in the Big Eye on Dark Skies exhibit through the Astronomy Afternoons program.
• UT Glass Shop / Adam Kennedy (Scientific Glassblower)coreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerCrafted custom spectral tubes for spectroscopy demonstrations. Student worker Ashot Tumaghyan designed portable enclosures; CNS Hello Maker Studio provided laser cutting services.
• Texas Historical CommissioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization for the annual Texas Archeology Fair celebrating Texas history, heritage and archeology.
• Bat Conservation InternationalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDr. Karin Akre from Bat Conservation International serves as speaker for bat conservation programs at the museum.
• Gulf of Mexico Trust / Texas Parks & Wildlife FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJay Kleberg, Executive Director of Gulf of Mexico Trust and former Associate Director of Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation, presented conservation programming.
• Dr. Jessica Ciarla (UT College of Natural Sciences)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated on Particles of Color exhibit featuring plant-based compostable sequins. Dr. Ciarla is Associate Professor in the Division of Textiles and Apparel.
• H-E-BcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerSponsored H-E-B Free Fourth Sundays program providing free museum admission on the fourth Sunday of each month.
• North American Reciprocal Museum Association (NARM)supportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorReciprocal museum admission benefit for Household-level members and above, providing access to 1,000+ cultural institutions.
• Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) Passport ProgramsupportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorReciprocal museum admission benefit for Household-level members providing free and discounted access to science centers worldwide.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Perot Museum of Nature and Science: Dallas-based science and natural history museum featuring paleontology halls, hands-on STEM labs, and a 3D theater. Operates at larger scale than TSNHM within the same Texas market and competes for statewide school field trip demand.
• American Museum of Natural History: New York-based natural history museum operating paleontology, geology, and science exhibits at much larger scale. Holds the sister Paluxy River dinosaur trackway slab to TSNHM's, making it a directly comparable peer in mission, content, and educational programming.
• Houston Museum of Natural Science: Houston-based science and natural history museum offering permanent and traveling exhibits in paleontology, geology, wildlife, and space. The most direct in-state comparable to TSNHM in Texas, with broader programming and a larger attendance base that competes for Texas STEM tourism.
• California Academy of Sciences: San Francisco-based natural history and science institution featuring an aquarium, planetarium, and natural history exhibits under one roof. Comparable to TSNHM in combining natural history and science/technology programming, including astronomy and live research integration.
• Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Pittsburgh-based natural history museum with strong paleontology (including iconic Diplodocus) and mineral collections. Operates a comparable mix of permanent galleries, educational programs, and membership tiers, and participates in reciprocal museum networks like TSNHM.
• Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County: Los Angeles-based natural history museum with extensive paleontology, wildlife, and geology exhibits including dinosaur halls. Comparable to TSNHM in core subject matter, educational programming, and membership/reciprocal programs, but operating at significantly larger scale.
• The Field Museum: Chicago-based natural history museum with globally recognized paleontology, geology, and biodiversity collections. Directly comparable in mission, exhibit mix, and educational programming to TSNHM, but at much larger scale and endowment.

Regional players

• Witte Museum: San Antonio-based museum focused on Texas natural history, science, and cultural heritage. Serves the same Texas K-12 field trip and family tourist market as TSNHM but in a different metro, positioning it as a regional rather than direct Austin competitor.
• The Thinkery: Austin-based children's museum focused on hands-on STEM and early-childhood learning. Operates in the same Austin family/education market as TSNHM and competes for the same K-12 and family visitor segments, but with a younger-age focus.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum: Austin-based state history museum operated by the State of Texas. Shares the same Austin visitor market, school field trip audience, and venue rental demand as TSNHM, but focuses on Texas history rather than natural history.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/TexasScienceNaturalHistoryMuseum
• Instagraminstagram.com/txscimuseum
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/texas-science-natural-history-museum
• Xtwitter.com/txscimuseum
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@TexasScienceNaturalHistoryMuseum

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Texas Science & Natural History Museum