Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Puglia Italy - Matera
Italy • 8 days, 7 nights
Southern Italy: Castles, Caves & Coastal Treasures in Puglia
from
Turkmenistan Gates of Hell Darvaza crater
Turkmenistan • 10 days, 9 nights
Turkmenistan & the Gates of Hell
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
Pinal Airpark
Note the chrysanthemum crests.
Hachiman Bridge
Clarendon War Memorial.
Clarendon War Memorial
This fried chicken is one of Bangkok’s most famous.
Gai Tord Jae Kee
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
This fried chicken is one of Bangkok’s most famous.
Gai Tord Jae Kee
Chefs Aruss Lerlerstkull and Atcharaporn Kiatthanawat lean into regional traditions.
Charmgang
The khao soi at Gedhawa comes with a rich, coconutty broth.
Gedhawa
At Nai Mong Hoi Thod, the oyster omelet is worth waiting for.
Nai Mong Hoi Thod
In this deceptively simple dish, top-quality ingredients are paramount.
Kor Panich
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Haleakalā National Park’s summit region, shrouded in the pre-dawn fog.
Beware the Legends Behind These National Park Souvenirs
5 days ago
For Aguilar-Carrasco, nature is a powerful reminder of the interconnectedness of all life.
How Can National Parks Be Made Accessible to All? AO Wants to Know.
5 days ago
Podcast: Finding ‘The Great Gatsby’ in Louisville
6 days ago
Here’s which treats you can safely lug home without risking a fine.
Dear Atlas: What International Food Can I Legally Bring Into the U.S.?
7 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States New York State New York City Granville The Pember Museum

The Pember Museum

Tucked away on the second floor of a small town library is one of the great private Victorian taxidermy collections looking today very much like it did in 1909.

Granville, New York

Added By
Dylan Thuras
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
The Pember Museum   Dylan / Atlas Obscura User
The Pember Museum   Dylan / Atlas Obscura User
The Pember Museum   Dylan / Atlas Obscura User
The Pember Museum   Dylan / Atlas Obscura User
The Pember Museum   Dylan / Atlas Obscura User
The Pember Museum   Dylan / Atlas Obscura User
The Pember Museum   Dylan / Atlas Obscura User
The Pember Museum   Michelle Enemark
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

For nearly fifty years, from 1924 to 1971, the second floor of the Granville library was the stuff of local rumor and legend.

Occasionally a kindly librarian might let an inquisitive child tiptoe up the grand wooden staircase and through the mysterious second floor door. They would find the room dusty, dark and smelling of mothballs. Within that gloom it was packed full to bursting with creatures from all around the world. Thousands of glass eyes reflected the little light that made it in. A portal to the past, the cobwebbed collection was almost exactly as it was when it was premiered in 1909.

Today the Pember Museum has been re-opened and is in active use, but thankfully it hasn't changed much in terms of aesthetics. It is still very much the Victorian natural history museum its creator Franklin T. Pember intended. Pember was born in South Granville, New York in 1841 the son of prosperous farmers. An early collector of natural specimens Pember began his collection when he was only 21. However much of Pember's personal and financial success would come after he met and married his wife Ellen Wood at age 27 in 1868.

Ellen and Franklin Pember were a kind of Victorian power couple, and throughout their lives their partnership was remarked on for its closeness and love. Together they began to build a small empire based around the natural world. Franklin made much of his wealth not through farming—he wrote to Ellen that he thought it was too much damn work for the reward—but through the fur trade establishing the "Pember and Prouty, Commision Dealer of Furs and Skins" in New York City. As the Pembers grew in wealth, they traveled the country and the world where Franklin continually hunted and collected an ever increasing set of natural specimens.

The Pember's eventually funded the building of Granville library that the museum was to go into and in 1909 Franklin's life's work was assembled and opened as the Pember Museum. It is displayed today much then as it was then, an incredible natural history collection displayed in wood and class cases. Victorian maximalism at its best. Unfortunately not long after the Pember's deaths (they died within a few weeks of each other) in 1924 the Pember Museum fell into neglect and disuse. 

Today, revitalized in the 1970s by the local community of Granville, the Pember is open and active. As one explores, Pember's presence can be felt throughout. Pember did much of the collecting, as well as the taxidermy in the museum himself, and his obvious love of natural history and his skillful hand at taxidermy are fully on display.

Related Tags

Natural History Museums Victorian Natural History Museums Libraries Collections

Community Contributors

Added By

Dylan

Edited By

DanielL

  • DanielL

Published

July 26, 2016

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • The Pember Museum of Natural History by Delight Gartlein
The Pember Museum
33 West Main St
Pember Library & Museum
Granville, New York
United States
43.406227, -73.263044
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Golf-Squatch

Whitehall, New York

miles away

Vermont's Marble Mansions

Fair Haven, Vermont

miles away

Danby Quarry

Danby, Vermont

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York State

New York State

United States

Places 807
Stories 45

Nearby Places

Golf-Squatch

Whitehall, New York

miles away

Vermont's Marble Mansions

Fair Haven, Vermont

miles away

Danby Quarry

Danby, Vermont

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York State

New York State

United States

Places 807
Stories 45

Related Places

  • One of the museum’s dioramas of animals staged in their natural habitats.

    Birchington-on-Sea, England

    Powell-Cotton Dioramas

    An English explorer's vast natural history collection has the first realistic dioramas of animals staged in their natural habitats.

  • Chlosyne leanira alma at the Bohart Museum of Entomology

    Davis, California

    Bohart Museum of Entomology

    This museum boasts the ninth-largest collection of insects in North America.

  • Alfred Denny Museum in the 1930s

    Sheffield, England

    Alfred Denny Museum

    Long-secret natural history museum, featuring the skull of a "Terror Bird."

  • Entrance sign. (Wikimedia Commons)

    Mount Angel, Oregon

    Mount Angel Abbey Museum

    World's largest porcine hairball sits in a collection maintained by Benedictine monks.

  • Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Blaschka Glass Flowers

    Impossibly life-like natural history models created out of glass by a father and son.

  • Ryerss Museum and Library

    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Ryerss Museum and Library

    The Ryerss mansion in Burholme Park now houses a community library and a museum filled with a trove of oddities from around the world.

  • Some of the buildings which form the Palace Green Library

    Durham, England

    Palace Green Library

    This library dates back to the late 17th century and was one of the first public lending libraries in England.

  • Beaney House of Art and Knowledge exterior.

    Canterbury, England

    Beaney House of Art and Knowledge

    A wonderfully eccentric Victorian-era museum and library.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.