The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature (formerly the South Florida Museum), located in Bradenton, Florida, is a natural and cultural history museum specializing in the history of Florida’s gulf coast. It houses exhibits highlighting Florida history from the prehistoric to the present. The Museum also features regularly changing exhibits in the East Gallery, as well as in other small galleries throughout the first and second floors of the Museum.

The Bishop also includes a Planetarium and the Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat, the former home of Snooty the manatee (1948-2017, Snooty was the oldest known manatee in the world at the time of his death). The Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat is a founding member of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership and has rehabilitated 36 manatees since 1998. The Planetarium, which was opened in the mid-1960s, has since been entirely remodeled and received a significant technical upgrading in October 2013.

Founded in 1946 by community leaders, the South Florida Museum opened in 1947 on Bradenton’s Memorial Pier with the Montague Tallant collection of Florida’s First Peoples pre- and immediate post-contact archaeological material as well as collections relating to the scientific and cultural history of southwest Florida and Manatee County. The Museum emerged as a leading cultural organization in the community, providing educational programs and field trips to tens of thousands of students through the years. In 1949 an exhibition pool for a baby manatee was added and Baby Snoots became an instant attractions as well as the official mascot of Manatee County.

Having outgrown its space at the pier, construction started on a new facility at the present location which would include a larger aquarium pool as well as a Spanish Courtyard and planetarium. The new, expanded facility opened in October 1966. In 1980 the expanded Spanish Plaza opened, emphasizing the area’s Spanish heritage with a full-scale replica of Hernando DeSoto’s home in Barcarrota, Spain, a 16th-century chapel, and a fountain with a bronze sculpture of DeSoto on Horseback. In 1993, the newly designed and massively expanded Parker Manatee Aquarium joined the South Florida Museum Complex and became a part of the Manatee Rehabilitation Network with a 60,000 gallon pool capable of housing up to three adult manatees.

In 2000, a campaign known as “Strengthening the Legacy” raised funds to renovate the Museum’s permanent exhibits. The ambitious renovation transformed the Museum and established it as a leading natural and cultural history museum on Florida’s Gulf Coast. In 2001, a devastating fire damaged the Bishop Planetarium, education and administrative wing, prolonging renovations. In 2002 phase I of the exhibit renovation opened to the public on the first floor. After a significant grant from the federal government and support from the community, a new state-of-the-art planetarium and theatre opened in 2005. Phase II of the renovation of the second floor continued in 2006. Second floor renovations include a new medical gallery, patron’s gallery, visible storage galleries, river heritage hall, and an environmental wing of exhibits depicting Florida pine uplands, riverine, estuarine and gulf waters habitats.

Please visit the business of one of our regular supporters.
Google map-http://goo.gl/maps/DkFv663wVurzc1rc7
Address: 344 S Orchid Dr, Ellenton, FL 34222

Be sure to check out this attraction too!