Welcome to the Children’s Museum Group

Where Learning and Fun Connect

The Children’s Museum Group is a Connecticut-based non-profit educational organization which includes The Children’s Museum and The Children’s Museum Preschool, both located in West Hartford, CT, as well as Roaring Brook Nature Center, located in Canton, CT. We strive to inspire life-long learning among children and their caregivers by providing experiential learning programs covering STEAM, health, nature and the environment.

• Founded in 1927 as a one-room natural history museum in The Pond House at Elizabeth Park in Hartford, The Children’s Museum is the fifth oldest children’s museum in the nation. The Children’s Museum resided on Trout Brook Drive in West Hartford from 1958 through 2022. And moved to the current location back home, in Hartford. It is unique in its cluster of components:
• The highly respected science-curriculum-based Children’s Museum Preschool established in 1946
• The Travelers Science Dome at the Gengras Planetarium opened in 1968
• Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton, established in 1948, which became part of The Children’s Museum in 1973
• The Wildlife Sanctuary at The Children’s Museum, opened in 1981

Sophisticated in-school and on-site educational programs aligned with Connecticut’s curricular standards, the museum and nature center embody themselves with hands-on, minds-open, child-centered interactive activities.

These together make The Children’s Museum Group a stimulating and unique resource to the area, with programs that assist the development of curious, confident and innovative children creating the basis for successful adults.