The Yale Peabody Museum is one of the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, an early paleontologist. The museum is best known for the Great Hall of Dinosaurs, which includes a mounted juvenile Brontosaurus and the 110-foot-long (34 m) mural The Age of Reptiles. The museum also has permanent exhibits dedicated to human and mammal evolution; wildlife dioramas; Egyptian artifacts; local birds and minerals; and Native Americans of Connecticut.

In March 2020, the Peabody Museum closed for its “first comprehensive renovation in 90 years”; it reopens this Spring 2024 with 50% more gallery space, rotating exhibits, and remounted hallmark fossils.