Area Museums

Museum of Riverside

Baskets, brilliant stones, and dinosaur bones greet you at the Municipal Museum. Built in 1914 in the Italian Renaissance style, this former U.S. Post Office building now highlights Riverside's diverse communities and rich cultural heritage. The Museum's natural history section tells the story of the Southland's plants and animals with life-sized dioramas of the desert and mountains. You will even find a mountain lion crouched on a ledge and hear it roar.

UCR California Museum of Photography

The innovative contemporary exhibitions of UCR/CMP explore photography's relationship to politics, art and society. Housed in a dime store renovated in 1990, this facility of the University of California, Riverside, also exhibits Ansel Adams photographs, examples of cameras from 1839 to the digital present, and a world-renowned collection of stereoscope cards.

Riverside Art Museum

Contemporary and historic Southern California artists are showcased in changing exhibitions at the Art Museum, once the city's Mediterranean-style YMCA. Julia Morgan, architect of the Hearst Castle, designed this small gem of a building in 1929. Converted to a museum later in the century, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Mission Inn Museum

Experience the sights and sounds of turn-of-the-century Riverside at one of the nation's grand hotels, the Mission Inn. Its collections, gathered from around the world by the hotel's founder, Frank Miller, have adorned the Inn's mix of architectural styles since its earliest days. Many of these artifacts are now housed in the Mission Inn Museum.

La Sierra University Museum of Natural History

Founded by Billy Hankins, M.D., who developed a technique for preserving animals so perfectly you will think they are really alive. Specimens are prepared by sculpture and freeze dried taxidermy.

La Sierra University Stahl Center Museum of Culture

The Stahl Center Museum of Culture is a rich cultural experience. View unique items from around the world. The current Stahl Center Museum of Culture exhibit is Games, Puppets, and Toys from Around the World.