San Diego Natural History Museum, Natural history museum in Balboa Park, San Diego, United States.

The San Diego Natural History Museum is a white stucco building on Balboa Park's East Prado, designed by William Templeton Johnson and opened in 1933. Its left section is lower and bears the inscription "NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM"; to its right rise a narrow flat-topped tower, a taller central block with six tall arched windows behind grilles, and a right wing. Yellow and blue tiles mark a row of arches under a balustrade, and the building has no tiled roof.

The San Diego Society of Natural History was founded on October 9, 1874, by George W. Barnes, Daniel Cleveland, Charles Coleman, E. W. Hendrick and O. N. Sanford. In 1917 it paid $500 for the vacant Nevada State Building from the Panama–California Exposition and opened its museum there, with Frank Stephens as first director. Architect William Templeton Johnson designed the permanent Balboa Park building, funded by a $125,000 grant from Ellen Browning Scripps; it was dedicated on January 14, 1933, and an addition doubling exhibit space opened in April 2001.

The museum works with indigenous communities to document and preserve traditional ecological knowledge of the region. These partnerships help visitors understand how people have lived in connection with the local environment.

The museum sits in Balboa Park and is easy to reach, with ample parking near the entrance. Exhibitions are spread across multiple floors, so visitors should wear comfortable shoes and allow plenty of time for viewing.

The museum houses a Foucault pendulum that demonstrates Earth's rotation through its movement across a marked platform. This physical experiment lets visitors directly observe a fundamental phenomenon of planetary science.