The museum, which is on Seventh Street near Market Street, closed in June after Temple University pulled out of a proposed alliance for support and resources to the museum.
The city and board of directors have been working on a plan to draw interest and public access to objects that tell the story of Philadelphia and Philadelphians over the past 350 years.
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Drexel University is now offering to serve as a possible trustee to collections, and offer expertise in loaning the artifacts to other venues.
"What I think the Drexel partnership gives us the opportunity to do is to show items not just that can fit in a museum, but that could also be smaller interpretations in other museums. Smaller interpretations in public spaces, smaller interpretations in educational settings, which should allow greater access to the collection as a whole," said Brian Abernathy, the city's managing director.
The collection houses 130,000 objects, with things like President George Washington's desk, a 1860 Quaker wedding bonnet, Joe Frazier's boxing gloves and a collection of vintage radios donated by broadcast pioneer and former KYW Newsradio General Manager, the late Roy Shapiro.
The managing director says the building will not reopen as a museum, and there has been no decision on the long-term strategy on what to do with the property.
Community meetings are being held for the public to weigh in, and members of the public are invited to give input on the proposed plan by submitting comments online here.