UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — You pass them every day: as you hop on a Link to ride to campus from the parking lot at Beaver Stadium, as you scooter across campus past giant lion’s paws on Curtin Road, beyond the glass wall in the hallway of Deike Building, or behind you as you start across Curtin Road to the Berkey Creamery.

Did you know that there are dozens of museums and collections across the University Park campus? Millions of specimens, including fish, birds and insects, historic objects, and cultural artifacts including paintings, sculptures, scientific and musical instruments, and more, are waiting at almost every turn.

Through Sept. 30, verify your visit to any and each of the sites on our new passport, available at each location. Special extended hours until 8 p.m. on Monday, Sept 12. Discover inspiring art at the HUB, iridescent insects at the Frost, striking pottery at the Matson, beautiful crystals and meteorites at the Earth and Mineral Science Museum and Art Gallery, heroic alumni at All-Sports, and visit the Calorimeter to see what agricultural science was like in the early 1900s.

“Penn State has a wide variety of museums and collections that offer something for every individual’s interests,” said Ken Hickman, director of the All-Sports Museum and president of the Penn State University Museum Consortium. “Events like these are an excellent way to raise awareness for these incredible campus resources and bring in new audiences.”

Across Penn State, collections care specialists and educators engage the University community and general public with exhibitions, programming, internships, and more. 

“Night at the Museums is a great way to bring students into the various campus museums and collections spaces,” said Patti Wood Finkle, collections manager, Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum and Art Gallery. “Working together, we can introduce students to these amazing resources and create lifelong museum visitors in the process.”

To find out more about these museums and collections visit museums.psu.edu

About the Passport Program

Students can visit any campus museum to pick up a passport, visit five of the 11 museums before Sept. 30 and get a stamp at each one, then submit your passport at the fifth museum to be eligible to win one of five fun prizes! Prize bags include gift cards, water bottles, stickers, keychains and swag from the Penn State museums.

About the Night at the Museums' event

Participate in Night at the Museums. On Sept. 12, select campus museums will stay open until 8 p.m. so students can visit after hours, get a stamp on their museum passport (or start their passport adventure), and explore the cool and unusual museums around University Park. Participating on Sept. 12 are the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum and Art Gallery, Matson Museum of Anthropology, HUB Gallery, All-Sports Museum, Frost Entomological Museum, and the Armsby Respiration Calorimeter (opens at 4 p.m.) 

The Museum Consortium actively promotes Penn State’s commitment to engaged scholarship, hands-on learning, and integrated programs of teaching, research, and service. The Penn State Museum Consortium is a voluntary network of University Park campus museum and archive professionals and informal education specialists.

The Penn State Museum Consortium strives to represent Penn State’s museums, galleries (including Borland, HUB-Robeson), teaching and research collections (such as birds, mammals, fungi), historic locations (like the Calorimeter), library special collections and archives, and other entities that care for and utilize cultural, historic, or scientific objects and specimens in their educational programming — whether or not the word “museum” is included in their name (such as the Planetarium and Penn State Herbarium).