Please check with the institution for hours, directions and fees;
also, be aware of the institution's policies regarding Covid-19.
Most of the websites for these museums have virtual exhibit tours,
and other online content related to their holdings.
American Museum of Natural History
Founded in 1869, the American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s preeminent scientific and cultural institutions. The Museum is renowned for its exhibitions and scientific collections, which explore human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.
The Cradle of Aviation Museum commemorates Long Island's role in the history of aviation and spaceflight. The museum features over 75 air and spacecraft that cover a 100 years of history. Also featured is a state-of-the-art Planetarium and a Retro Video Game Exhibit that illustrates the history of games through over 70 restored classic arcade cabinets.
The Freeport Memorial Library offers passes for this museum and they can be reserved here or in the Children’s Room.
Hempstead PlainsThe not-for-profit Friends of Hempstead Plains at Nassau Community College is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Hempstead Plains and to offering educational programs about this special and rapidly vanishing ecological and historical habitat. Hempstead Plains is 19 acres of College-owned land that is part of a 65-acre remnant of the Plains – this is all that remains of 40,000 acres of native grassland prairie that once comprised central Nassau. The Plains is home to 250 species of plants, including some six state rare and/or endangered species. Check the website for operating hours.
The Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center
The Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center is a facility that explores how energy consumption shapes the natural environment. Located on the West End of Long Island’s Jones Beach State Park, the Center illustrates the coastal landscape as a living example of these relationships. The net-zero building models how architecture, design, and technology can adapt to a changing environment. The Center has accessible indoor and outdoor exhibits, educational programming, and public events, and showcases ways visitors can become conscientious environmental stewards.
Long Island Children’s Museum has 14 hands-on, interactive exhibit galleries, a theater, and learning studios. The indoor and outdoor galleries are interdisciplinary, age-appropriate and intergenerational. Other programming includes early childhood and STEM.
The Freeport Memorial Library offers passes for this museum and they can be reserved here or in the Children’s Room.
The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) has more than 450 interactive displays that explain science and the world. NYSCI also features an outdoor space that lets you experience a Science Playground, vintage Atlas, Titan rockets, and a nine-hole miniature golf course.
The Freeport Memorial Library offers passes for this museum and they can be reserved here or in the Children’s Room.
Vanderbilt Museum & Planetarium
The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum — a unique combination of mansion, marine and natural history museum, planetarium and park.
Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium is a waterfront complex that counts among its extensive collections (which total more than 40,000 objects) the mansion, curator’s cottage, a seaplane hangar and boathouse, antique household furnishings, rare decorative and fine art, the archives and photographic record of Vanderbilt’s circumnavigations of the globe, and published books of his travels.
The Freeport Memorial Library offers passes for this museum and they can be reserved here or in the Children’s Room.