Anniston Museum of Natural History

The Anniston Museum of Natural History is a museum in Lagarde Park, Anniston, Alabama, exhibiting more than 2,000 natural history items on permanent display, including minerals, fossils, and rare animals in open dioramas.

In addition to exploring Alabama’s natural heritage, the museum features diorama-style exhibits that begin in pre-history and extend to the North American wilderness and the African savannah. Each of the museum's seven exhibit halls explores a different natural history theme. The Environments of Africa Hall contains more than 100 African animals displayed in simulated natural settings. Other highlights include 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummies from the Ptolemaic period, a cave-dwelling creatures exhibit and a children’s discovery room. The Dynamic Earth depicts the planet's formation and includes minerals, fossils, gemstones and dinosaurs.

The history of the Anniston Museum of Natural History begins in Norristown, Pennsylvania where, in 1915, H. Severn Regar began exhibiting his personal collection of historical objects and biological specimens. The collection included over 1,800 ornithological specimens collected by Pennsylvania naturalist William H. Werner in the latter part of the 19th Century. In 1929 when Mr. Regar moved his business and family to Anniston, he offered the collection to the city.