Wheelchair-accessible car park
Yes
Texas Memorial Museum in Austin
Categories
Location on the map
Austin, Travis County, Texas, US
Accessibility
Wheelchair-accessible entrance
Yes
Wheelchair-accessible lift
Yes
Wheelchair-accessible toilet
Yes
Amenities
Gender-neutral toilets
Yes
Good for kids
Yes
Restaurant
No
Crowd
Family friendly
Yes
Phone: +1 512-471-1604
Site: https://tmm.utexas.edu/
Site: https://tmm.utexas.edu/
Opening hours
- Monday:Closed
- Tuesday:9AM–1PM
- Wednesday:9AM–1PM
- Thursday:9AM–1PM
- Friday:9AM–1PM
- Saturday:9AM–1PM
- Sunday:Closed
Texas Memorial Museum in other cities:
Comments (199)
Nice small-scale museum with a diverse collection. Each of the galleries are small, but fun to look at. Nice mix of fossils and geology.
This is a great museum across from UT. Great place to bring the kids and get some knowledge. Ive been here 3 times because it is just a cool place.
Loved it. So much and so little! We have young toddlers and this to us 2 goes to complete... Which, in my opinion, is perfect for young kids.its not over whelming and just pleasantly spaced and displayedTip for new parents: the entrance Hall is full of gems and rocks/stones, my kids couldnt see some of it and were disinterested so I took out my.phone and used it like a magnifying glass to talk about colors and texture while in and out (check pics). Took us 20 mins just to get thru the first room! And we also circled around the paleontology gallery three times, noticing something new every time.
Great natural sciences museum! It’s not too big, but with the four floors of biological and geological collections, paintings, some interactive exhibits, and the beautiful outdoors on UT Campus, your family will surely have a great time!
The grand historic building is beautiful and the dinosaurs are always a huge hit with kids of all ages. The museum was the pride of the University of Texas campus when it was completed during the Depression, in part with nickels and dimes raised by students and faculty. But it was recently defunded by the Legislature casting its future in doubt. Go see this jewel while we are lucky enough to still have it!
This place rules! OMG, if you love geology, history and just science in general, you will love this place!Gift shop is very reasonable too!Beautiful old building which reeks of awesomeness....love this place!
I used to come here as a kid. Now we’re bringing our kids. Same old displays for the most part but it’s just so relaxing. The walk through campus just adds to the tranquility.
I really enjoyed all the exhibits. There is a lot to look at and its a fun learning experience. The cool phone feature allows you to dial in and hear more about an exhibit. I will definitely visit again!
Great little museum, especially for the price. Kiddo and both of us adults enjoyed it.
Austin needs to step up their game. This museum on the UT campus is the only one in the entire city. Its very small. It took my family of 5 less than an hour to tour...But, it was very impressive as to the number of specimens found in the State of Texas, including a giant ground sloth.
It hasnt changed since I was a kid. A lot of the same stuff. Its interesting to just look around, not a lot of interactive stuff but its okay if you want to kill time.
Getting tickets online was a little confusing but overall friendly people and a good experience museum wise.
When my son was little this was his favorite place and we visited many times. It was such fun to return with my grandsons! The museum is well taken care of and has updated several of their exhibits. It is well worth the price of admission and parking.
This is a great, easy, family friendly putting in Austin. Plenty of parking, easy access, affordable, friendly staff and interesting exhibits. Also good for a quick excursion as you can explore all 4 floors in under an hour if you want.
The wildlife/dinosaur exhibit was perfect for my 9 year old daughter and I!
Great place to teach kids about natural history. The kids I was with loved it and I learned some things about Texass diverse biological history going back 600 million years. It was also nice that they had a Texas wildlife exhibit that included examples of various kinds of snakes. Very useful for teaching them which snakes to be very wary of.
Was able to show the gkids a great field trip for home schooling at their own pace. Which is as absorbent as a dry sponge soaking up every bit of water next to the ocean.They loved it.
Interesting rocks and fossils. Nice display of Texas wildlife. Cool that many fossils were found locally. Small, a couple hours is plenty for most visitors.
I love this place. When I used to work on UT campus, I would often spend my lunch break here. Free admission is a staff benefit and this place is full of really cool stuff. I especially like the WPA building, the flying pterodactyl skeleton, the giant topaz, the enormous dragonfly fossil and the dire wolf skeleton in the basement.
Nice place it has 6 floors a nice variety of fossils & minerals. Its a great place to be with your family to see fossils minerals and even dissected animals. The stairs can be a little bit of a work out too if you are not used to walking much. The second floor is where the main entrance is and the first floor is underground.They have a nice little shop which to be honest have ripoff prices because Im not about to spend $15 dollars for a little rock. Overall it was a good experience.
A hidden gem on UT Austin campus. A small museum with impressing collections. The pterosaur fossils are stunning. Kids love this place.
Impressive building and collection of dinosaurs bones.
Dinosaurs are a hit with the kids, and I really enjoyed the rocks and minerals
Great state natural history museum accessible for all ages. The main entrance is the second floor which is a nice geologic exhibit that has an amazing skeleton of a Pterasaur dangling from the ceiling. The first floor (basement level) has a beautiful assortment of prehistoric skeletons that showcase life found in Texas before recorded history. Its a great museum for everyone.
Visiting this museum was an absolute blast! The exhibits were thoughtfully constructed and presented the natural history of Texas in an engaging format suited for visitors of all ages. The entrance fee was remarkably low and the staff friendly. Also, it was refreshing to see evolution talked of as a fact.
Lots of exhibits to see. My 2 and 4 year old had fun seeing everything. Went in at 2pm on a Saturday and it was not crowded.
Had a blast it was myself along with a few Teachers and 15 Kindergartens the smiles on their faces , the history they love it.
One of the more underrated gems in Austins weak museum scene. Not the largest museum out there, but they have a great collection of fossils, minerals and Texas wildlife exhibits on display, as well as opportunities to interact with scientists in those areas. Good place to pass an hour or two with the kids, especially for the price.
This was our first time going here and we had a blast. My daughter loves dinosaurs, so she was super excited to see the mosasaurs fossil. Everything was so clean and very detail oriented. I encourage everyone to go visit this museum. The only thing I didn’t like was there’s only one entrance if you have a stroller.
Great spot for all ages! Their exhibits are well explained. The dinosaurs from Austin, Big Bend and around texas are amazing. This is an inspiring spot for kids who are interested in fossils, paleontology, geology and the natural world. There are even large fossils from around Austin!
Our first time here and our 3 year old son really enjoyed it as did my husband and I. I see some complaints about how it used to be free but they charge now, the building is old and is only getting older and upkeep and salary (i.e. security guard and gift shop) is not as cheap as it used to be back in the day either. It was a well $19 spent for our little family. We were there for about an hour and a half.
A few of the items on display are looking rough from people touching them but ive always loved this museum ever since I was a child coming here with my parents! Its a great place to take the family or go spend the day learning. I really liked the cell phone tour option where you call a number to listen to a recorded message about the exhibits you are looking at
They wouldn’t let use go into the shop since it was 12:55 and they close at 1pm. You have to dial a number to get information on fossils instead of just having the information on a sign. Not worth the trip
Four stories of history. Paleozoic era to a new floor project that has native and Texas history on the fourth floor. Very quiet and can spend a good amount of time.
A pretty small museum but still a fun place to visit at least once! It is free for UT students (with ID) and only about $3 for other visitors, the dinosaur room is pretty great. The entrance room also has a large collection of gemstones that is pretty amazing to look through. Its not the largest or most impressive museum Ive seen but it made for a fun Saturday afternoon.
Excellent place to learn something about the beginning of the life in this planet.
Small museum with nice collection on geology and paleontology. The kids loved the fossils. Audio guides on selected displays provided an interactive way for the kids to get interesting facts on the topic.
They have ramps but they are not handicap friendly at all. I had surgery and was unable to walk the museum with my kids. They told me I couldnt sit in the lobby... Cool on a hot summer day... Unless I paid. Because the lobby area had things to look at. Even though I was sitting on a bench not looking at anything. We wont go back.
Brought my 1 and 5 year old they loved it! Lots to see, not crowded at all and the ac on a hot day was amazing!
Great variety of fossils and minerals on display, huge variety of dinosaurs and ancient reptiles. Lots of local wildlife on display as well. We were disappointed that the dinosaur tracks were not on display but its hard to take away from the rest of this fantastic museum. Great for kids.
Love this museum. It is small so perfect for taking small children or lots of children. They have cool dinosaur phones and one of the floor has a lots of specimens in bottles. Kids love the gift shop.
This was a blast! A 13 yr old geology and science nerd was a happy camper and so was I. I love this spot to wander around for a couple hours.
Great displays of fossils from around the world. Texas wildlife exhibits from all Texas regions. Nice museum.
Small museum, but very nice and quiet. Kids were seldom interested, but not a bad thing, not all museums are for kids. The pterodactyl display in the main hall is great!
A great little museum right on the University of Texas campus. Its within walking distance of several other great landmarks and it has a great collection of Texas historical artifacts. Its just enough to satiate your interests but not enough that you need to spend an entire day to see it all. As a Texas enthusiast Ive visited multiple times and always enjoy the exhibits.
Your good old school natural history museum; still displays animal specimens preserved in formalin jars. While that gives it an intimate feeling, the museum does need more funding to modernize its interiors. That said, they get their job done by showing Texas wildlife dioramas, fossils, gems & minerals etc., and they also have special exhibitions and an audio guide.
Awesome place and cool dinos
What an Awesome place!! The humongous Pterodactyl hanging from the ceiling has got to be my favorite!?!? There are so many cool fossils to choose from My kids were in amazement and very eager to learn!! Our second stop was the library, they both wanted a book on dinosaurs!
The basement full of fossils was really neat, but the rest of it felt like it was just a taxidermy showcase and some weird obsession with one species of shark. No displays for information on anything, they instead had you call a number to listen to a recording if you wanted to learn about it, which was all very limited information. I hate to give a bad rating to a museum, but I dont feel like I learned anything here.
An excellent museum located on the UT campus, it offers a look into Texas past from a scientific perspective, covering everything from caverns to dinosaurs. I highly recommend this museum. Parking is available in the San Jacinto parking garage next door and is very reasonable.
My grandsons loved it from the top to the bottom
I went on a field trip with my son and it was a wonderful place to go. This place is rich in history and knowledge for children who are wondering about this great state of Texas that we love him. Me being an adult I even learned quite a few things on the trip! I highly recommend to go on a visit here.
Not super big but a great place to go and learn about texas native species and dinosaur fossils discovered in the state!
I love this place. A rough gem.Perfect field trip for kids and natural history nerds.Wonderfull Art Deco Building.Too bad UT is letting it run down.Great gem and mineral collection.Real meatorites you can touch!Dinosour bones and great fossils.Natural history diorama is a little sad.Worth the visit.
My favorite museum in Austin. Warm and cozy with many interesting exhibits. Super kid friendly. Dinosaurs and rock collections? Are you kidding me? They also allow you to bring in your nice DSLR cameras to shoot... how cool is that. One of the campus gems that every Austinite should experience... and it costs almost nothing to make a visit.
An excellent collection of bones, fossils, gems, and Texas life. It takes about 60 to 90 minutes to walk the whole museum. I would say the cost of admission is worth it.
Small and old, the fossil part was fun and the maps of texas showing where rock from different periods is exposed were cool. The top floor was closed and the taxidermy section is dated.
This museum should be more well known! I walked the whole of it but spent the most of my time in the fantastic WWII exhibit. It details the Texas contribution to the war. It is quite amazing and Im not even Texan!
Quite nice and relatively unknown musuem, I didnt know about this place until I came for a class. Its free admission for UT students and the gift shop is fairly priced. The staff are nice and polite as well. Ill be back!
Wonderful small sized museum on texas natural history, great for adults and 2nd grade and up kids. Younger kids wont enjoy as much I think due to the density of reading and lack of interactive exhibits
Awesome collection, very diverse, admission fee is very small and the place is quiet, clean and friendly. My daughter loved all of the dinosaur bones and fossils, of which they have a massive collection.
I loved this place when i was in high school we took a field trip there it was so fun looking at all the bones and learning interesting facts about them i think it was the place that got me hooked on dinosaurs and the old mammal fossils found in tar pits
Simple and a little but lonely, but enjoyable, I love fossils and minerals, a very lovely lady on the 1st floor can explain you everything you want, entrance is 7 dlls for non college visitors, the art deco architecture and style of the exhibition its like traveling in time
This museum is for the birds.It has the most amazing reconstruction of Quetzalcoatlus, the largest flying pterosaur.The mosasaur in the basement is both beautiful and stunning.The exhibit on the buzz-saw shark is one of the best displays I have seen on science in action.
A little small but perfect for your kids short attention span. Interactive exhibits, reasonably priced. Cash only and pay parking (parking takes credit)
Good sized museum. Nice exhibits and pretty well detailed descriptions.
Very cool collection of meteorites. Some you can touch. Even cooler fossils. Dinosaurs, amphibians and mammals. Fun for adults and super cool for young children.
Was free 40 years ago but I paid $12 for myself and my son. Almost all the same exhibits. Brought back so many memories but whats going on with the footprints?
Not really worth the price of admission. Spend about 90 minutes here to escape a rainstorm. Compared to other museum of this type it wasnt worth it even if the admission was free.
Amazing museum highlighting past and present natural habitats of Texas. Awesome dinosaur exhibits! Perfect for kids of all ages
A place not to be missed. Well done!
Really fun museum to explore with a dinosaur liking 3 yr old.
It is just an awesome place for the family!!!
Texas Wildlife Day was fun. Great exhibits, engaging for many age groups, kind volunteers with fun activities for kids.
Small but spectacular! Emphasis on geology and paleontology, and very well done. Well able to hold the attention of visitors of all ages.
Always a good place to time travel back to prehistoric eras and climb up and down beautiful staircases. The gift shop is awesome...bring lots of money!
Definitely a hidden treasure in Austin. I actually prefer this museum to the Bob Bullock. Their collection of fossils is impressive, but Im sad that I went back and the comment card binder was no longer on the 4th floor.5th star lost because wheelchair access is difficult and not readily obvious.
Always a fun place to take the family.Upgrades are seriously needed though. Some of the older dispassionate are covered with dust and the animal exhibits are losing hair......
Fun place to visit, took my grandson. Had taken his father years ago.
Smaller than some museums but a beautiful building and a lot of exhibits..plus on the beautiful UT Austin campus.. great place to take a class
Not a lot of people know about this museum, its on the UT campus. I went there while taking a geology class there. Its free and they have a lot of awesome dinosaur fossils and minerals. Very interesting.
Took my 6 year old Grandson. He really enjoyed the dinosaur exhibits. I enjoyed the rocks as much as the dinosaurs.
Texas Memorial Musuem is a great place to take children, good gift shop and a lot to see. Check out Texas Memorial Museum when you have s chance.
Very small and dated museum but staff were friendly and I liked that lots of the casts/fossils were local.
Fun and short! Not too expensive.
I always love this delightful and impressive museum. I loved the new art addition on the top floor. Nice staff and clean facility.
Definitely worth the stop if youre into dinos. A really nice exhibit organized chronologically. Not huge but well done.
Cute little museum filled with a variety of exhibits! Awesome for dates not just bringing kids
Its a good little museum to spend an hour in. Two if you are a mild archaeologist. Otherwise there are more interesting places to go.
This place is small, definitely not for an all day excursion. The exhibits are interesting and informative though!
A great museum with very nice palaeontology exhibits. Excellent service too. Worth a detour if you enjoy old bones.
Old bones good.
Good place to go and check out some fossils. They also have an area with animals of Texas. It is a good place for the kids and best of all it is free.
Things keep changing. Wasn’t that good as we visited in May 2018 than November 2017
Great little museum tucked into the UT campus. Parking garage right next door. Fantastic collection of dinosaur fossils.
It was such a pleasant surprise! We really enjoyed all the exhibits!
Haven’t been here in years but my daughter wanted to come out and I forgot how cool it was when I came before! We had a great time!
One of my favorite places to visit. Sadly under threat of closure.
Great museum on natural history, especially if you have a little dinosaur enthusiast.
Awesome exhibits. It just lacks into about each item.
Loved the shiny rocks and the bones. Nice day outing and quiet enough for conversation.
Really good museum with very reasonable entry prices. As long as you dont go in free entry day it is a pleasant experience (to crowded other wise)
The onion creek, travis county, mosasaur(mosasaur Maximus) was found in 1934 by U.T. Geology students Clyde Ikins and john smith, near Big Bend. Mosasaurs breathed air but were powerful swimmers, who probably swam near here and all around Texas, when Texas was a shallow warm sea(early Cretaceous period 85-65 Ma). Pg.76-77 river road vistas by William Macleod.
I love this museum, its all about TEXAS. If you love rocks and dinosour artifacts you will love it. Located on the UT Campus, you feel TEXAS all around you!!!
Very interesting worth visiting for sure. Dont miss all the floors with all the expositions
I have always wanted to visit this museum. Finally got to see it today. Amazing!! Highly recommend anyone to visit.
Please adjust your phone menu regarding hours to reflect you are closed on football Saturdays. We are 0-3 this season trying to get in prior to home games.
Nice museum for younger kids. However, I dont recommend bringing a stroller.
Loved the artefacts. The display of Dinosaur fossils is great.
Kids enjoyed it.
I enjoy looking olsd fossils
Disappointed that the gift shop closes before the museum so we missed it and parking is difficult to find, but otherwise enjoyed the visit.
Awesome place to check out
Interesting place. Has four levels to see. Enjoyed my visit and price wasny too bad.
Great place to visit. Lots of interesting things to see. Parking isnt very good since it is within UT limits.
So cool and only $7per adult!!
Small musuem but a lot to see. There are fun things for the kids to do as well.
Great place for kids. My nephew loved it! Onsite parking is extra bonus.
A great place to take the kids for a few hours to learn and discover
A wonderful set of dinosaurs and dino bones. Grandchildren enthralled. Very patient and helpful staff
Old museum on UT campus. Had some interesting finds.
Saw lots of rocks and animals (bones). Would recommend if you like either!
Great little place for science lovers. And just like the doctor whos tardis, much bigger than you would think on the inside.
A lot of things to see. Each floor has a different theme to it. Worth the price to kill some time.
Wonderful, quant and informative for an old school (ha!) Natural History Museum.
Requires time. Interesting.
Great museum. Bigger than it looks! Most items from Texas.
Very interesting. On campus! Difficult to find. Can see everything in 2-3 hours.
Great experience...
Very small but a nice place to take kids.
Museum was small and needs some TLC.
I knew there’s Fossils Of The Ancient Past. I Knew There were dinosaurs in that museum!
Great place to visit dinosaur bones. Especially the pterasaur.
Amazing, my seven year old loved it almost as much as me!
Amazingly Kept Exibits.
Excellent place for family outing!!!
Great paleo exhibit!!! Good inexpensive fun!!
Travel through the natural history of Texas as you explore three stories of exhibits from fossils to frontiers.
Really nice place!! I enjoy the tour and all the Halls!
Great way to spend a Saturday. Kids and adults will love it!
Great little venture when visiting Austin. On the way to the bat visit. Be well vacationsensei
I really enjoyed learning about texas at the texas memorial museum. It is very interesting
Another Great Texas Museum!
It was OK ....no big deal but for the price I guess it was alright ....very old museum
Great small natural history museum on UT campus
It was a little cramped and didnt like how the only ramp is far from the parking garage
Great place to bring kids of all ages!
Great indoor summer escape and location for touring
Bones and bugs here are sweet
Really i like this museum you can found more interesting things on talk about the wars
Very nice place for my 3 kids.
Lots of fossils, super informative loved it.
Awesome!
This is a Texas Treasure. My kids love going through there.
If you like rocks and dinosaurs, this is the place for you!
So many historical features! Cool!
Best place to spend a rainy day!
Excellent place to visit for the whole family
A journey back in time. Take your kids and remember your childhood.
Fun! Great exhibit!
Overlooked gem excellent museum.
Loved it!
Awesome prehistoric exhibit
Love Texas history and the city of Austin.
Amazing! love the sets!
So much fun to learn.
Loved the fossils!
Very good
Excellent museum
Awesome museum in Austin.
Very cool
Fun museum on UT campus
Oh my goodness. A gem.
Great Family Fun
Loved it, nice place
Just Fantastic Arts..
Nice but small
Well worth a visit.
Well maintained.
Awesome place!
Awesome
Very educational
Nice
Good for history
Educational for kids
Awesome awesome awesome
I loved the decorations and the assembly of the stuffed animals
Good place to have a good time with the family. Especially if you have children who like dinosaurs.
Small museum inside the university with very nice things, especially concerning dinosaurs and stones / crystals / weather .....The department of stuffed animals is very complete but a bit dated!I spent a good 40 minutes, with a little updating, modernization, this museum could be really good!
Total reviews rating 4.5
199 Reviews for Texas Memorial Museum 2023:
Review №1
2021-09-08Loved this museum at U Texas Austin. The exhibitions’ set up is old but it contains quite a lot of information, especially on prehistoric Texas (but not exclusively limited to Texas), local flora and fauna, and geology. Great collection of gems on display. Friendly staff, cheap access ticket. Parking is at the garage next door - park there and walk to the museum.
Review №2
2021-09-03We loved this museum but we did not like the parking garage that tried to keep us in the parking garage. The museum was one of the best I have been to and so affordable. Everyone in our group had a great time and found so many interesting things to look at. We plan on visiting again one day. I would recommend it to other people but tell them to watch out for the the parking garage next to it.
Review №3
2021-11-20There are four floors of exhibits. Very informative and interesting to read about time periods and history. The gift shop isn’t expensive and my son loves the mood ring. It’s a nice souvenir to remember the experience.
Review №4
2022-01-06Took my five and seven year old kids. My youngest loves dinosaurs. The floor you enter on has some cool gems and such. The downstairs has a small exhibit of fossils. Many are locally discovered which is fascinating. Third floor wasnt much at all. We were in and out in an hour. After paying for parking and entrance fee, it felt a bit pricey for the limited experience. Not sure this is worth a return visit for the costs ($30 for a family of four) and overall experience.
Review №5
2022-03-07Great museum and really fair price as well! Kept my 4 year old engaged the whole time. There was also an extremely nice man working on the first floor who answered my sons endless questions about the bones who I really appreciated being so kind. Wasn’t too crowded on a Friday afternoon. Would definitely recommend to families in the area!
Review №6
2021-06-25I took my three girls 15,11, and 8 for a visit here. We all enjoyed the exhibits very much and all my girls had fun and I was happy to sneak in some indoor learning on a hot summer day. We spent about 1.5 hours here.
Review №7
2021-05-06Wonderful natural history museum. Spent about an hour and a half to see it all but I found the exhibits and displays to be very informative. I do recommend trying out the audio tours. They had fun facts!Museum has gems, fossils, meteorites, and a couple of exhibits about the wildlife in Texas.
Review №8
2021-04-20Fun place to explore. 4 floors of things too see. Price is decent and good for kids. Easy to navigate and will keep them interested but not too much stuff where they will be bored half way through
Review №9
2019-06-15A great kid friendly museum with a ton of natural history exhibits, my 3 year old always begs to go back to the dinosaur building now. Parking is easy with a garage next door especially for on campus.
Review №10
2019-02-20This place was a pleasant surprise! While its small and maybe an hour and a half visit, it was definitely worth the trip. Parking is a pain though as you have to use the garage parking next door as street parking is all reserved for the school, but if youre in the area and want something to do its definitely worth it. No fee to get in but donations are recommended.