The NMNH Volunteer Program is a recognized, integral part of the staff at the National Museum of Natural History community. NMNH volunteers are key to engaging the Museum’s diverse visitor audience in natural history and collaborating with Museum staff on research initiatives as peers.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is one of the world's great museums of natural and cultural history, building on nearly a century of research into our changing earth and its climate; the evolutionary history of plants and animals, and human origins, diversity, and culture. The Museum's research environment features incomparable collections of nearly 130 million specimens of plants and animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human artifacts from world-wide locations. The collections form a foundation from which are built inextricably strong connections between research, exhibits, outreach and education. More than seven million people visit the Museum annually, where they have an opportunity to participate in a variety of exciting, exhibit-based, educational experiences that are facilitated by volunteers. Volunteers also support researchers, scientists, collections managers and other experts behind-the-scenes.