Oakes Museum of Natural History — Attraction in Upper Allen Township

What a hidden gem! We stumbled upon the Oakes while exploring the Messiah University campus. Their collection of animals is so well preserved and displayed. We had a great time reading, exploring, and posing with the animals for fun and silly photos. The displays are accessible but not for touching. It might be difficult to take a very active toddler there and prevent them from touching, but if they could be in a stroller or carrier it would be a great experience for them to see all the animals. And this is a gift shop worth visiting as well. High quality educational books and Schleich animals! Hours are...

It's a small museum, maybe 6 rooms across 2 floors, but the staff was very helpful and knowledgeable about the exhibits and the dioramas were nicely arranged. There were activities for small children, everything was clean and orderly. Probably not going to fill more than an hour or so, but not a bad stop on a rainy Saturday. I believe all of the animals on display were real taxidermy, so that could be a positive or a negative depending on your...

Interesting little place that serves as a great laboratory and real work practice as docents for undergraduate students. It may not reflect the worst of graduate students or research professors. Takes about 20-25 minutes to go through, more of you read all the plaques. There are a couple of play and learn are for little ones. Probably a perfect first natural history museum for little tikes. I appreciated the chance to take a...