Just short of its 200th birthday, a landmark natural history museum shuts down

Beloved for its dinosaurs, Philadelphia's storied Academy of Natural Sciences closed down this week, amid an intense fight by local residents, politicians and scientists to save it.

<img src='https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4080x3060+0+0/resize/4080x3060!/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fae%2F63%2Fd4ea684b40f88cfb28c1fe8b05f7%2Fstaff-talking-dino-in-back.jpg' alt='The Academy of Natural Sciences Museum's dinosaur skeleton exhibits have been popular with generations of children, since they first were exhibited in 1868.'/><p>Beloved for its dinosaurs, Philadelphia's storied Academy of Natural Sciences closed down this week, amid an intense fight by local residents, politicians and scientists to save it.</p><p>(Image credit: Andrew Stelzer for NPR)</p><img src='https://media.npr.org/include/images/tracking/npr-rss-pixel.png?story=nx-s1-5989716' />