About Us

Our Mission & Vision

The Georgia Southern University Museum exists to foster and support life-long learning and engaged citizenship in southeast Georgia. The museum will support the University’s mission of teaching, research and service specifically through collections, exhibits and educational outreach.

The Georgia Southern University Museum will be the premier institution interpreting the natural and cultural history of Georgia’s coastal plain. The museum will develop facilities to support collections, exhibits and programming of national stature. The museum will meet or exceed national standards of management, sustained through continuous professional development of a highly qualified staff.

As a member of the Georgia Southern University Museum, you can help us preserve the history of Coastal Plain Georgia and serve our audiences with exciting exhibits, programs, and outreach. Become a member now!

Hours & Admissions

• Tuesday – Friday: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Sunday: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

The Museum is closed Monday, Saturday and University holidays.

Want to speak with a staff member? Call us at 912-478-5444.

Admission

• $4 per person
• Free for children 3 years old and younger
• Free to all Georgia Southern students and Museum members

Museum History

The first museum on campus was organized in the late 1920s, when the school was organized as the Georgia Normal School. Known as the Anderson Memorial Museum, it included shells, bones, and an eclectic assortment of artifacts. Later the library and individual departments exhibited objects and in the late 1970s, the Geology Department’s collections were displayed in the Herty Building and were called the Herty Museum.

The primary impetus to form the current Georgia Southern Museum was the acquisition of a mosasaur fossil skeleton by the geology department in the late 1970s. Paleontologist Dr. Gale Bishop was named as the first part-time director. On January 31, 1982 the museum officially opened for the public with a dedication ceremony and address by Dr. Craig Black, Director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and then President of the American Association of Museums and in November of 1982, Dr. Del Presley began his tenure as Director. The museum continued to expand its significant fossil collections, most notably in June, 1983 when the museum excavated the Vogtle whale Georgiacetus vogtlensis – an internationally significant fossil discovered by Georgia Southern paleontologists, at Plant Vogtle, Burke County, Georgia. 

Under the direction of Dr. Brent Tharp since 2000, the museum has significantly expanded its cultural history collections, including a rare, pre-Civil War cotton gin, artifacts of the Gullah Geechee, and other significant collections documenting the interaction of the unique environment and cultures of south Georgia. In 2021, the university and museum completed major architectural renovations to the 1937 Rosenwald Building housing the museum, including redesigned permanent exhibits in two new galleries.

Museum Staff