The California Academy of Sciences is among the la...

The California Academy of Sciences is among the largest museums of natural history in the world.

In 1853, just three years after California joined the United States; seven men assembled in a candle lit room in San Francisco and founded the first scientific academy west of the Atlantic seaboard.

Over the past 160 years, the Academy has grown to become the fourth largest natural history museum in the country. Home to Steinhart Aquarium, Morrison Planetarium, and the Kimball Natural History Museum, as well as world class research and education departments, the Academy's mission is to explore, explain, and sustain life.

In its early days, the Academy consisted of a group of naturalists who met weekly in a small Victorian office in San Francisco, where scientific papers were presented on topics of interest to a group of curious citizens.

In 1868, it was renamed as the California Academy of Sciences.

In 1874, the academy's first official museum opened at the corner of California and DuPont Streets (now Grant Avenue) in what now is Chinatown, and drew up to 80,000 visitors a year.

In 1891, to accommodate its increasing popularity, the academy moved to a new and larger building on Market Street.

In 1906, the great San Francisco Earthquake struck and left the museum in charred ruins. But even as the city burned, a two-year Academy expedition to the Galapagos Islands was gathering the material that would form the nucleus of the institution's new collections.

In 1916, the Academy found a new home, the North American Hall in Golden Gate Park.

In 1923, Steinhart Aquarium, the most diverse aquarium in the world, was added and over the next eight decades, five major exhibit halls as well as buildings for research were constructed to help further the Academy's mission to explore, explain, and protect the natural world.

In 1934, the Simson African Hall was added.

In 1951, the addition of the Science Hall was added.

In 1952, the Morrison Planetarium was added. The Morrison Planetarium was the seventh major planetarium to open in the United States and featured a "one of a kind star projector," built by academy staff members (in part using the expertise gained doing the optical work for the U.S. Navy during World War II).

In 1959, the Malliard Library, Eastwood Hall of Botany, and Livermore Room all were added. Throughout the 1960s, universities concentrating on the new field of molecular biology divested themselves of their specimen collections, entrusting them to the academy and leading to a rapid growth of the academy's holdings.

In 1969, another new building, Cowell Hall, was added to the site.

In 1976, several new galleries were opened

In 1977, the "fish roundabout" was constructed.

In 1989, nature again took its toll in the form of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Major structural damage left the Academy in need of another beginning.

Our visit:
Went there on opening day, big mistake! The only good

That was a mistake but still, worth the trip...Other than being bumper to bumper with other visitors who some had the same thought of the crowds, it was interesting to see how they made improvements here.

They added new solar panels, covered the roof with dirt and plants and redid the whole interior which looks great. It was also hot inside and I don't think they turned the AC on. I also thought the price was steep but I guess your contributing to science! Great place!