This data set includes the responses of 775 survey participants collected in an online survey on expectations of a natural history museum. The anonymized data contains socio-demographic information of the participants. In addition, expectations of the setting and the content of a fictitious natural history museum, which essentially deals with earth system research topics, were surveyed. The data presented here are the result of a revision of the raw data. Among other things, incorrect data records, more than 80% incomplete data records and duplicates resulting from the data transfer were removed. The data set presented here also contains the results of the coding of open questions by three coders.