Museum of Discovery

Photo: License: Copyright

The Museum offers 25,000 square feet of interactive exhibits and over 30 programs designed to provide learning experiences for all ages.

Writer and prohibitionist, Bernie Babcock, established The Arkansas Museum of Natural History and Antiquities in 1927. Babcock gave the museum to the city of Little Rock as a Christmas gift in 1929, and it was house in City Hall.

In 1942, the museum was moved to the renovated Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal. It remained there for fifty-five years. It became the Museum of Science and Natural History in 1964, and the Arkansas Museum of Science and History in 1983.

In 1998, the museum became the Museum of Discovery: Arkansas' Museum of Science and History, and was relocated to the River Market. The museum merged with The Children's Museum of Arkansas in 2003.

In 2008 the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation awarded a $9.2 million grant to the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock for expansion and renovations. These would include three new interactive exhibits and, construction of a new entrance from Clinton Avenue. Following renovations, the Museum of Discovery reopened in January 2012