The article is dedicated to one of the largest museum centers of natural history in the world - the California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco, USA), which is, since its founding in 1853, both a research and scientific and educational organization. The California Academy of Sciences, in its current version, presents a prime example of the development of basic museum’s concepts in USA: guardianship, corporate museum, museum communication, achieving the goals of sustainable development of society, the involvement in science the population on the basis of the system “STEM-education” (Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics). The article analyzes the history and modern activities of the museum in terms of exhibition features, scientific and educational practice. Architectural, artistic and engineering solutions, features of internal infrastructure, themes, content and design of the exhibition complex reflect the stated national mission to "explore, explain and sustain"), in accordance with the implementation of the declared environmental concept of sustainable development (fighting global climate warming, the development of technologies of energy conservation, cleanliness and waste of production, etc.). On the basis of our own museum observations, analysis of literary data, we can conclude that museums as social institutions and interactive technologies used in the educational process are most suitable for the task of introducing the widest range of citizens to science and culture. The example of the California Academy of Sciences provides important guidelines for the development of museums in our country.
I.—The Natural System of Volcanic Rocks. By F. Baron Richthofen, Dr. Phil. Printed by the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 1868.
