History
Burpee started as a Natural History Museum in Rockford in the historic Barnes Mansion. In 1893, the Williams Fletcher Barnes house was built during a severe economic depression. It was one of the finest homes in Rockford, costing more than $30,000 at the time. A showplace with 15 rooms, a turret, two porticoes, and hand-carved solid cherry paneling in the foyer, reception area, and first floor hallway. In 1937 Amy Lane, one of Mr. Barne's daughters, sold the building to the Rockford Park District for $12,000. The Rockford Park District set up its offices on the first floor. The Burpee Museum opened its doors to the public in the second and third floors in 1942. Burpee expanded its occupation of the house to include the first floor and basement in 1971.
Specialties
Burpee is a Natural History Museum. Check out exciting exhibits of wildlife, gems, fossils and dinosaurs (a juvenile T-Rex internationally known for being one of the most complete skeletons, a beautiful Triceratops and more!). We are a quick trip from Chicago, and close to great Downtown Rockford restaurants. Burpee offers exciting field trips for schools and hands on workshops from making fossils to water quality testing and invertebrate analysis in our water lab right on the Rock River. Burpee offers home school programming where the museum becomes your laboratory. Don't miss special family programming and festivals from butterflies to fossils to dinosaurs to citizen scientists. Our mission is to inspire all people to engage in a lifetime of discovery and learning about the natural world, through preservation and interpretation.