delaware museum of nature & science

What delaware museum of nature & science does

The Delaware Museum of Nature & Science is a nonprofit natural history institution headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1972 as the Delaware Museum of Natural History and rebranded in 2022 following a major renovation, it serves the Mid-Atlantic public and K-12 education community with permanent and rotating exhibits on natural history and science. Its core asset is a research-grade collection exceeding 2.3 million mollusk specimens (ranked 10th in North America) and 116,000+ bird specimens including the continent's 2nd largest bird egg collection, with material dating to 1859.

The museum's programmatic offerings span permanent galleries, a Nature Nook interactive space, special exhibitions, an Augmented Reality Sandbox, school break camps, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and events such as the Cold Blooded and Caring 5K. Scientific research is led by Ph.D. scientists including Dr. Matthew Halley and Dr. Liz Shea, who publish peer-reviewed work including original descriptions of new species and subspecies, and contribute to the in-house academic journal Nemouria. The collections are actively integrated with federal and academic biodiversity informatics infrastructure (NOAA, iDigBio, GBIF, InvertEBase, VertNet), supporting national-scale scientific use cases.

Revenue is generated across multiple streams: gate admission ($15.50/person), a tiered membership program with ASTC/NARM/ROAM reciprocal benefits, donations, corporate sponsorships (Bank of America, DuPont, PNC, M&T Bank, Corteva, BNY Mellon, Incyte, Chemours), and fee-for-service programming such as camps and rentals. The organization operates from a single Wilmington, Delaware facility, with no disclosed expansion to additional physical locations.

Name

delaware museum of nature & science

Legal name

Delaware Museum of Nature and Science

Website

https://delmns.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1972

Operating status

Operating

Short description

The Delaware Museum of Nature & Science is a nonprofit natural history museum in Wilmington, DE, serving the Mid-Atlantic public with exhibits, camps, and rentals, and supporting national scientific research through collections of 2.3M+ mollusk and 116,000+ bird specimens integrated with iDigBio and GBIF.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Natural History Museum

NAICS

Museums (712110), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (7121), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712)

akta.pro primary industry

Natural History Museums (THAJADAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Museums & Heritage Sites (History, Science, Specialty) (BPAGAHAA), Science & Technology Museums (THAJADAD)

Keywords

• Natural history museum
• Science education programs
• Scientific specimen collections
• Children's museum exhibits
• Museum venue rentals

Headquarters

HQ city

Wilmington

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, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Admission Fees: General admission charges for visitors ages 3 and up at $15.50 per person with 5% cash discount available. Free admission for museum members and infants under 12 months. Toddlers ages 1-2 charged $5.50.
2. Birthday Party Rentals: Private party room rentals for up to 30 people at $340 for Preferred Level 4+ members and $420 for non-members. Additional party rooms available for same price. Add-on themed programs at $180 each.
3. Camp Programs: School Day Off Camps for kids ages 5-14 at $95 for members and $105 for non-members. Before-care and after-care included in base price.
4. Membership Dues: Multi-tiered membership program offering benefits including free admission, ASTC Passport Program access (Levels 4, 6, 8, 10), NARM and ROAM reciprocal benefits at higher levels.
5. Donations and Corporate Sponsorship: Donations from individuals and corporate sponsors including Bank of America, Dupont, PNC, M&T Bank, Corteva, BNY, Incyte and others. Planned giving and ways to give programs.
6. Venue Rentals: Museum facility rentals for corporate meetings and special events outside regular programming hours.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Delaware Museum of Nature & Science is a nonprofit natural history museum that operates permanent and rotating exhibit galleries, hands-on science and nature educational programs for children and families, school group and camp programming, birthday party hosting, facility rentals for events, and provides scientific research access to its digitized mollusk and bird specimen collections through international biodiversity data aggregators.

Product overview

The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science (DelMNS) operates as a natural history museum offering a unified portfolio of visitor-facing experiences and scientific services. Core offerings include permanent and rotating exhibit galleries (Regional Journey, Global Journey Gallery, PaleoZone, Discovery Gallery, Nature Nook), educational programs (school tours, camps, birthday parties, scout programs, adult programs), and scientific collections research access. The museum's scientific collections—comprising over 2.3 million mollusk specimens and 116,000+ bird specimens—are made accessible online through data aggregators. Supporting services include membership programs with reciprocal benefits, facility rentals, an on-site café, and a gift store.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Permanent Exhibit Galleries Permanent exhibit galleries including Regional Journey (Delaware's ecosystems), Alison K. Bradford Global Journey Gallery (world nature), Ellice & Rosa McDonald Foundation PaleoZone (dinosaurs and paleontology), Discovery Gallery (interactive science), Nature Nook (PNC Grow Up Great early-childhood exhibit), and the Skylight Atrium, available to general visitors.
• Educational Day Camps and School Programs Day camps for children ages 5-14 including School Day Off Camps, Summer Camps, Junior Paleontologists, Tiny Explorers, and themed camp programs, plus guided school group programs and walk-by mobile museum booths for K-12 audiences.
• Birthday Party Packages Private party room rentals for up to 30 people with themed add-on programs including Backyard Explorers, Legends & Heroes, Bug-tacular Birthday Bonanza, Mind-craft Miners, Star Side Science, Dino Days, Weird Wacky Animals, and Undersea Explorers.
• Tiered Museum Membership Program Multi-tiered annual membership offering free admission and reciprocal access to 850+ museums and science centers through the ASTC Passport Program (Level 4+), NARM, and ROAM networks (Levels 6, 8, 10).
• Scientific Specimen Collection Access Research access to over 2.3 million mollusk specimens (tenth largest collection in North America) and 116,000+ bird specimens (with second-largest bird egg collection in North America), made available globally through iDigBio, GBIF, InvertEBase, and VertNet data aggregators.
• Museum Facility Rentals Facility rental services for corporate meetings, special events, and evening gallery rentals outside of regular programming hours.
• Nemouria Scientific Journal Peer-reviewed scientific journal, Nemouria: Occasional Publications of the Delaware Museum of Natural History, covering mollusk and bird ecology, systematics, taxonomy, and distributions, published since 1970.
• Museum Store On-site gift shop selling nature-themed merchandise, toys, books, and museum souvenirs for visitors.
• On-site Café Rest, Relax, & Recharge Café providing food and beverage services for museum visitors on-site.

Quantifiable outcome

• New species discovery: Bourciera ovata land snail identified from Ecuador specimens in museum collections
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• OmniPotential Energy PartnersminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to install Curbstar Level 2 EV charging station at the museum. Expands public EV charging access while supporting museum's sustainability goals. Installation completed with minimal disruption to facility.
• NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative deep-sea coral research expeditions. Dr. Liz Shea participated in 14-day NOAA Ship Henry Bigelow expedition sampling deep-sea corals in Atlantic Canyons and Gulf of Maine as part of Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration (CROCHET) collaboration with US and Canadian scientists.
• iDigBio (Integrated Digitized Biocollections)coreTechnology or IntegrationNational resource providing access to over 100 million digitized specimen records. DelMNS contributes collection data and provides access to researchers globally through this platform.
• InvertEBasecoreTechnology or IntegrationDigitization project for North American arthropod and mollusk collections. DelMNS is a collaborative partner with EF 14-02697 NSF grant funding.
• GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility)coreTechnology or IntegrationInternational database aggregating biodiversity data. DelMNS contributes mollusk and bird specimen data with institution code DMNH.
• VertNetcoreTechnology or IntegrationDatabase for vertebrate specimen collections. DelMNS bird collection fully databased and searchable through VertNet.
• ASTC Passport ProgramcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorReciprocal membership program providing DelMNS members access to hundreds of museums and science centers nationwide. Levels 4+ receive ASTC benefits; Levels 6, 8, 10 receive NARM and ROAM as well.
• University of DelawareminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with university students for shell preservation project and volunteer programs

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Cleveland Museum of Natural History: Mid-size natural history museum with strong research collections, dinosaur/paleontology exhibits, and K-12 programs—comparable mid-Atlantic/regional footprint and operating model.
• Cincinnati Museum Center: Multi-disciplinary museum complex featuring natural history exhibits, education programs, and reciprocal ASTC/NARM membership—directly comparable diversified-revenue nonprofit museum model.
• North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences: State natural history museum with research collections, public exhibit halls, and extensive educational programming—comparable in mission scope and target audiences.
• Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University: Philadelphia-based natural history museum with comparable mollusk and bird research collections, publishing programs, and K-12 education offerings; closest geographic/dimensional peer to DelMNS and an existing research collaborator (mollusk studies).
• Virginia Museum of Natural History: State-affiliated natural history museum with similar mid-size research collections, exhibit galleries, and education programming—comparable in scale and mission profile.
• Buffalo Museum of Science: Mid-size regional science museum with hands-on exhibits, education programs, and afterschool/summer camp offerings—closely comparable operational scope and audience mix to DelMNS.
• Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale): University-affiliated natural history museum with vertebrate and invertebrate research collections, public galleries, and academic publication pipeline—comparable collection-and-research hybrid model.

Broad incumbents

• Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Mid-sized natural history museum in Pittsburgh operating permanent/rotating exhibits, research collections, and education programs at a larger scale than DelMNS—useful regional scale benchmark.
• Houston Museum of Natural Science: Large, multi-site natural science museum operating permanent exhibits (including dinosaur/paleontology halls), a planetarium, and education programs—incumbent benchmark for revenue scale and exhibit scope.
• Field Museum (Chicago): Major natural history institution with globally significant specimen collections, large-scale exhibits, and a substantial research staff—broad scale benchmark and an iDigBio peer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/delmnh
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCJ8uvRsuFqf5LcaDRKPwzIg
• Facebookfacebook.com/delmnh
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/delaware-museum-of-natural-history
• Instagraminstagram.com/delmns
• TikToktiktok.com/@delmnh

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 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 delaware museum of nature & science