What You'll See At The Virginia Living Museum

Virginia’s natural heritage comes alive at the Virginia Living Museum through living exhibits that encompass all the state’s geographic regions from the mountains to the ocean. Each exhibit tells a story. There is the predator-prey relationship between the chipmunk and the corn snake; the survival adaptations of the flounder and puffer fish; the endangered status of the once plentiful sturgeon, and the geological changes that have created caves.


Virginia’s Coastal Plain Gallery
The Coastal Plain Gallery explores the world’s richest nursery, the Chesapeake Bay. From the forests beyond Virginia’s coastal marshes to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and beyond, the Coastal Plain Gallery highlights animals and habitats that characterize the eastern-most region of our Commonwealth.

Exhibits range from the dramatic 30,000-gallon Noland Chesapeake Bay Aquarium, with its large sea creatures, to an underwater view of the intricate and complex life forms that inhabit a wooden piling beneath the ocean waters.

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Virginia’s World of Darkness Gallery

In Virginia’s World of Darkness, visitors come eye-to-eye with tiny sharks, burrowing pine voles, scurrying ghost crabs, playful flying squirrels, eerie moon jellyfish, and other animals that adapt to nocturnal life.

Bats, tree frogs and other nocturnal animals are active during the day in this fascinating area.  Meet animals, such as lobsters and rays, that make their living in the inky twilight of Virginia’s coastal waters.
 

Virginia’s Underground Gallery

In the Virginia Underground Gallery, journey back through Virginia’s ancient past by learning about fossil remains preserved beneath our feet and marvel at the beauty of rocks and minerals that formed deep under the Earth.

Visitors walk through and explore the intriguing geology and critters of a limestone cave, wind their way past the striking features of a cut-away of the fossil-rich layers along the steep banks of the James River and the colorful gems that can be found in the “jewel box” of an underground mine.

Appalachian Cove & Cypress Swamp

In the two-story, glass-covered walk-through habitats visitors immerse themselves in natural environments.

The cool, moist Appalachian Cove features a waterfall, a swift-running mountain stream and lake filled with mountain fish, plus free-flying birds where the sounds, sights and communities of native plants and animals are like taking an instant field trip to the mountains.

The Cypress Swamp is a recreation of vital and endangered wetland habitat. This impressive gallery features an entire community of plants and swamp creatures including massive cypress and tupelo tree trunks, alligators and a snapping turtle.
 

Discovery Centers

Four different interactive Discovery Centers await your exploration.  These hands-on Centers are brimming with specimens from the worlds of life science, space science and geology.  From a visible bee hive “buzzing” with activity to our Chesapeake Bay Touch Tank, each Center is sure to engage visitors.

Abbitt Planetarium 

In the Abbitt Planetarium, visit the planets, travel to a black hole, observe spinning galaxies or study the Earth from space. Using our state-of-the-art digital full-screen projection system, we can recreate the many wonders of the universe, including the stars and constellations of the sky for any season of the year - all from the comfort of an armchair. Length of Session: 45 minutes. 
 

Abbitt Observatory

With a dome that revolves 360 degrees and a university-grade, 16-inch, Meade telescope, the rooftop Abbitt Observatory provides visitors with spectacular views of the sun where they can learn about telescopes, see sunspots, flares and solar prominences. On the second Saturday of the month in 2009, you can observe beautiful objects in the night sky.  

Changing Exhibits Gallery

Throughout the year, new interactive and highly informative natural history exhibits are featured in this special gallery. An additional fee may be required for school groups.

Coastal Plain Aviary

The 5,500-square-foot Coastal Plain Aviary is a dramatic walk-through aviary filled with coastal birds such as pelicans, herons, egrets and ducks. It showcases more than 16 species of birds that either breed in Virginia or fly through the state during spring and fall migration along the coastal flyway. The elevated boardwalk takes visitors 11 feet above Deer Park Lake and into the treetops to view the birds.

Outdoor Boardwalk

The Museum's 3/4 mile, elevated boardwalk crosses Deer Park Lake and winds through woods and a wetlands area, showcasing animal’s native to Virginia in naturalized habitats.

Along the boardwalk, beavers, river otters, bald eagles, bobcat, deer, wild turkeys, skunk, opossum, gray fox, red fox, coyotes and red wolves can be seen. Interpretive stations help explain the critical importance of wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, highlight life in the pond and showcase native wetland plants. In addition to the animals on display, visitors can see fish in the stream, turtles basking on logs or swimming in the lake, bullfrogs along the banks and many different kinds of birds.

Butterfly Garden

The Butterfly Garden features a variety of native plant species that provide food for native butterflies in both their adult and juvenile (caterpillar) forms. It includes plants that flower in spring, summer and fall that produce nectar sipped by adult butterflies. It also includes the particular host plants that our most common butterflies seek out when they are ready to lay their eggs. The leaves of these host plants provide a ready source of food for the caterpillars when they hatch.

Virginia Garden

The Virginia Garden highlights 400 years of Virginia's botanical history.  See the native plant species that were present when the first settlers arrived at Jamestown, the flora that was introduced to Virginia colonists by Native Americans and the plants that helped the settlers survive those first critical years.  The garden also displays species introduced by the colonists and some native species that were exported to England to be used in gardens there.  Learn about two of Virginia’s early colonial botanists who were key to identifying and naming Virginia’s flora. Finally, the garden emphasizes some plants that have been introduced to Virginia that have become invasive and threaten native plant populations.

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Living Green House and Conservation Garden

On June 20, 2009, the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News opened its “Living Green House” environmental education center. In its exhibit house and yard, homeowners, architects and contractors can see all the latest techniques and products they can use to build and maintain an earth-friendly home, presented in a way that makes them visible and understandable to the general public.

The museum’s Green House is the first of its kind in Virginia and one of the first anywhere in the United States.

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