Natural History Collection

Bring the natural world back to your classroom with Lindsay Wildlife’s Discovery Kits. Each kit includes lesson plans, materials, and museum specimens to engage and inspire your students.

We offer 5 discovery kits designed for educators. Each kit utilizes real museum specimens, a suggested curriculum, and 3 hands-on activities providing a unique opportunity for students to engage with the natural world. All activities are aligned with  Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). 

Reservations for the Discovery Kits must be made at least two weeks in advance. All rentals are for one week. Payment is required prior to pick-up. 

Click HERE to learn more about our Discovery Kits.

For more information, email srushing@lindsaywildlife.org or call (925) 627-2937.

The Lindsay Wildlife Experience welcomes donations representing California native wildlife including vertebrates, invertebrates, botany, geology, fossils, scientific illustrations and art. Non-California specimens are accepted if the museum deems that the specimen possesses a strong comparative value, environmental message, research value, or educational purpose. Acceptance of a donation is at the discretion of the Curator of Education & Visitor Experience and is guided by the Collection Policy.

Please do not bring or send objects to the Museum. They will not be accepted. Unsolicited donations left at the Museum will be disposed of. 

How to Donate

To have your donation considered, you must submit a proposal in order for our collections committee to consider the donation. Please email Sariah Rushing at srushing@lindsaywildlife.org with the following information:

• High quality image of each object being considered for donation.
• Dimensions for each of the objects, this can be a scale included in the provided images.
• How did the object(s) came into your possession?
• For Natural History – Location and date of when the object was originally collected, if known.
• For Scientific Illustrations and Artwork – The name of the artist and date, if known.
• Any additional information you have, any and all information is helpful in our decision-making process.

Once we receive your completed proposal, LWE staff will carefully consider your offer. Those considerations include the object(s) relevance to LWE’s mission; how well it fits within the collections policy; its condition; and whether we can adequately care for it in the future. Please note that not all donations can be accepted. If the object is accepted, you will be asked for additional information to complete formal documentation for transfer of ownership.

We respond to all proposals, however depending on the unique considerations of each proposal, it can take us up to one to two weeks for us to respond.

Admission and use of the collections is granted to research scientists, graduate students, and artists. Access to the collections is by appointment only and usually during administrative hours. Requests to visit the collections should be emailed to Sariah Rushing at srushing@lindsaywildlife.org. We respond to all requests, however depending on the unique considerations of each request, it can take us up to one to two weeks for us to respond.

We will consider loans for research or exhibition, typically to organizations and institutions rather than individuals. For individuals and educational loans please refer to our discovery kits found here. Initial loan requests should be emailed to Sariah Rushing at srushing@lindsasywildlife.org. Depending on the scale, purpose, and duration of the loan request, we may ask you for additional information, such as environmental conditions at your institution, your proposed analytical and handling methods, and your institution’s security. For this reason, it is best to initiate a request or query early.