The collections of the North Museum of Natural History and Science reflect the cultural and natural history of South Central Pennsylvania through the significant cultural and scientific objects that have been acquired by the Museum to further its mission as a premier educational institution and provide a window to world issues. The collections document the history of the region in which it exists and are maintained by the Museum for use in its education, research, and public service activities.

The collections were originally owned by Franklin and Marshall College. They were begun through the collecting activities of College faculty and staff during the first half of the 19th century. On June 11, 1889 the College trustees formally accepted responsibility for housing the collections of the Linnaean Society, which had been chartered on February 15,1862. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the College's collections grew as a result of faculty and staff collecting, and by gifts and bequests to the College. Professional curators were first hired for the science collections in 1908 and for the art collections in 1981. On January 1, 1998, Franklin and Marshall College transferred ownership of the science collections to the North Museum Corporation.

Other

The North Museum's collection also include:

• Paleontology - more than 100,000 fossils including several type specimens.  Because of the efforts of Dr. John Price, former Museum Paleontologist and Dr. John Roddy, our collection includes one of the largest and most complete fossil collections of early Cambrian organisms in the world. The collection also includes Devonian and Carboniferous fossils and several type specimens, including the only Triassic fossil of a vertebrate found in Lancaster County, Sphodrosaurus.
• Herbarium - An extremely important collection, the North Museum botanical collection is the fourth largest in the state with over 22,000 specimens of plants, ferns, mosses and algae. Most of the collection is from Lancaster County and other parts of PA collected in during the 19th century. The 5,700 seed collection contains some of the earliest specimens dating from the early 1800's.
• Ethnographic collections with items from Native American tribes, Africa, Central and South American Pottery, and the Inuit.
• Entomology collection has approximately 16,000 specimens including early specimens from the Linnaean Society.  The oldest insect specimens in the North Museum collection date back to the mid-nineteenth century. Collections from Simon S. Rathvon, chairman of the Linnean Society's committee on Entomology, and Samuel S. Haldeman, who wrote research on the Coleoptera of Southeastern Pennsylvania in 1843, are among the historically significant collections housed at the Museum.
• Conchology collections - With over 15,000 shells collected from around the world, The North Museum Shell collection includes an impressively large freshwater and land shell collection started by the Linnaean Society Members, S. S. Rathvon and Samuel Haldeman. The “jewel” of the collection is the Kendig land shell collection of 5,000 specimens.