What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 9am - 4:45pm Wednesday 9am - 4:45pm Thursday 9am - 4:45pm Friday 9am - 4:45pm Saturday 9am - 4:45pm Sunday 9am - 4:45pm

New Jersey State Museum

Name: New Jersey State Museum
Address: 205 W State St, Trenton, NJ, 08608, US
Telephone: +16092926464
Price range: $
Rating: 4.5

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New Jersey State Museum

Exhibitions, collections & research in Archaeology/Ethnography, Cultural & Natural History, Fine Art.
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The State Museum features collections, exhibitions and programs in science, history and art. Featuring the largest planetarium in the state, with a state-of-the-art, full dome video digital and laser light system.

09/04/2026

Is your preschooler fascinated by prehistoric sea creatures? Bring them to the Museum for September's Small Explorers program! Be introduced to reptiles and sea creatures that lived millions of years ago. Enjoy a story, look at the fossils of Mosasaurus and Deinosuchus. Take a fun walk in the natural history hall & see the creatures! The program finishes with play-based activities in the museum’s STEAM center. Learn more & register: https://collections.humanitix.com/small-explorers-20262027-program-season

09/03/2026

Sep. 26 the Museum is launching a new art program for adults. "Inspired By the Collection" will focus on inspiration from the museum’s vast and varied collection. Sessions will be held the last Saturday of each month from 2 - 4 pm.

The program is free, includes all supplies, and is open to all skill levels, from beginner to advanced. September's class explores linocut printmaking. Class size is limited, advance registration is required. Find additional details and registration on Humanitix with this link: https://events.humanitix.com/inspired-by-art-workshops

09/02/2026

The Planetarium is re-opening this weekend with a newly upgraded Ultra-High Resolution 8K projection system and a brand new show on the schedule - Little Eve: Stories of Planet Earth.

The show is for children K - 4th grade. Discover how a tiny, determined cell learned to grow into something more. Follow a brave fish as it escapes the sea and learns to walk on land. Finally, join a clever squirrel who manages to outlast the mighty dinosaurs. Little Eve listens and begins to wonder: what if the smallest are far stronger than she imagined?

Weekend Schedule:
12 noon - EXO: Are We Alone?
1 pm - Little Eve: Stories of Planet Earth
2 pm - Áróra
3 pm - Spark: The Universe in Us

09/01/2026

Welcome to September! It's , and this month the Museum is pleased to welcome Local History Librarian Robert Schenker from the Trenton Free Public Library. September 15 at 12 noon, Robert will highlight the fascinating holdings of the Library’s Trentoniana Collection and explain how you can utilize these rich archives for your own research! We hope you can stop by!

08/30/2026

This document, on view in "The Power to Change," was signed June 24, 1664 and created New Jersey. James, Duke of York, gifted the land between the Delaware and Hudson Rivers to John (Lord Berkley) and Sir George Carteret. They split the land into East and West Jersey (the map is hanging in the "Pretty Big Things" gallery) and established companies that sold parcels land to settlers. Their present day successors still have some rights from small parcels of land never sold.

Map: The Province of New Jersey Divided into East and West, Commonly Called the Jerseys. Copperplate engraving, William Faden, based on surveys by Bernard Ratzer. 1778 version.
It shows two historical east west division lines: The Keith Line, 1687, and The Lawrence Line, 1743.

08/29/2026

Artistic expression dates back to our prehistoric ancestors, and science shows that arts of all kinds contribute to our health and well-being. Residents have free access to the NJ State Museum, where visitors can experience the American Perspectives galleries and explore artworks from the 19 c. through today. Painting, sculpture, drawings, collage and more, by some of America's most notable artists are on view!

You can read more about this topic here: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2025/09/art-mind-brain

08/28/2026

It's time for a trip to the NJ State Museum!
✔️Free admission
✔️DINOSAURS 🦕(plus awesome art, history, and science!)
✔️See the special 250th exhibitions!
✔️Easy to get to - Calhoun St. exit off Rt. 29, make a right at the light onto W. State Street!
✔️Free weekend parking - enter the driveway right after the 1st building on W. State Street or park on the street.

08/27/2026

Did you know eclipses come in pairs? About two weeks after the partial solar eclipse we witnessed here in Trenton Aug. 12th, we'll get the chance to see a partial lunar eclipse on Thu., Aug. 28th! While you often have to stay up very late to witness a lunar eclipse, this eclipse will occur between 10:30 pm and 2:00 am, with maximum eclipse just after midnight.

During this partial eclipse, the moon will turn blood red, because the sunlight reaching the moon will have traveled through Earth’s atmosphere. Our atmosphere scatters the bluer light of the Sun, only allowing the redder light to pass through, just as we witness during sunset. The moon will look similar to how it appears in this photo from Sweden during the Jul. 27, 2018 lunar eclipse.

Image Credit: W.carter, Wikimedia Commons

08/26/2026

It's ! We're joining the worldwide celebration of canines with a look at some fun, rarely-seen artifacts from our Cultural History collection.

Small, hinged containers for s***f, beauty patches, tiny sweets, novelty souvenirs or tokens of affection were immensely popular in Europe and America in the 18th century. Metalworkers, ceramists, jewelers and enamelers designed and decorated these charming, portable works of art, which were perfectly suited to gift giving.

Measuring just around one inch, the size of these tiny “trinket boxes” demanded delicate, small-scale decoration. Miniature floral swags, landscapes, portraits, bird and animal forms, and other designs from nature were the most commonly used motifs.

Made in the late 1700s, these three beautifully-crafted examples take the whimsical shape of dog heads. They are part of a collection of more than 100 boxes obtained by husband and wife collectors from New Jersey and donated to the State Museum in the 1980s.

Ruth Campbell Brink Collection, Gift of Colonel Samuel F. Brink

08/25/2026

It’s back-to-school season! To mark this exciting (and hectic) time of year, we’re commemorating the art of the written word with two 19th century artifacts from our Cultural History collection.

In 1846, 10 year old Mary Kuhl of Raritan Township (Hunterdon Co.) completed this cursive writing exercise. Her beautifully-flowing script is a wonderful example of what some fear may one day become a casualty of our digital age. In the 1800s, school girls not only practiced their writing on paper, but also on textiles.

Needlework samplers are intricate fiber artworks consisting of thousands of tiny silk stitches. Girls between the ages of 8 and 15 made samplers at school, following patterns distributed by their teachers. Emily Beams of Morris Township (Morris Co.) meticulously stitched the letters of the alphabet in several rows at the top of her 1839 sampler seen here. The assignment was intended to teach an important skill that could later be an asset in managing a household. Emily’s project is also decorated by a pair of American Robins flanking a flower basket. Additional birds complement butterflies, trees, and flowers within a kinetic, zigzag border, a decorative element borrowed from quilting patterns of the period.

Address

205 W State St
Trenton, NJ
08608

Opening Hours

Tuesday	9am - 4:45pm
Wednesday	9am - 4:45pm
Thursday	9am - 4:45pm
Friday	9am - 4:45pm
Saturday	9am - 4:45pm
Sunday	9am - 4:45pm

Telephone

+16092926464

Website

http://www.statemuseum.nj.gov/, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNFj4CbXUFux_WZQUEi6JSA

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