The Chilean National Museum of Natural History ( es, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, links=no or ) is one of three national museums in Chile, along with the Museum of Fine Arts and the National History Museum. It is located in

Quinta Normal Park Quinta Normal Park is an urban park in the city of Santiago, Chile. The park is in a commune, or district of the same name, Quinta Normal. The park is bounded by Matucana Avenue to the east, Portales Avenue to the south and Santo Domingo Street to ...

. Founded on September 14, 1830 by the French naturalist

Claudio Gay Claude Gay, often named Claudio Gay in Spanish texts, (March 18, 1800 – November 29, 1873), was a French botanist, naturalist and illustrator. This explorer carried out some of the first investigations about Chilean flora, fauna, geology and ge ...

, the director of the Museum and the Botanical garden was another Frenchman Jean-François Dauxion-Lavaysse.

History

The museum is one of the oldest natural history museums in South America. It was founded on September 14, 1830 by the French naturalist

, commissioned by the Chilean government. Its first director was another Frenchman Jean-François Dauxion-Lavaysse.Its original mandate was the biology and geography of Chile, with a concentration on crops and mineral resources. The current building was constructed in 1875 as a palace, or pavilion, for the Chilean International Exhibition. In 1889 departments of botany, zoology, and mineralogy were established. The ''National Museum Bulletin (Boletín del Museo Nacional)'' was first published in 1908, and continues today under the title ''Bulletin of the National Museum of Natural History (Boletín del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural).'' Earthquakes in August 1906 and April 1927 have damaged the museum. Humberto Fuenzalida was director of the museum until

Grete Mostny Grete Mostny (17 September 1914 – 15 December 1991) was a Jewish Austrian who became a leading Chilean anthropologist. She was born in Austria but had to leave because of the rise of the Nazis. She went to Belgium to complete her studies before ...

became director in 1964. She led the museum until 1982.Grete Mostny
Memorial for the victims of National Socialism, University of Vienna, Retrieved 9 November 2015

Exhibits and collections

National Museum of Natural History main hall Santiago Chile 2009 May 24

The museum currently has twelve permanent exhibits: *Biogeography of Chile, a long tunnel that fills much of the first floor *Interactive children's games for terrestrial ecosystems *The Central Hall exhibits, including a 17-meter skeleton of a

sei whale The sei whale ( , ; ''Balaenoptera borealis'') is a baleen whale, the third-largest rorqual after the blue whale and the fin whale. It inhabits most oceans and adjoining seas, and prefers deep offshore waters. It avoids polar and tropical w ...

*Minerals, with an emphasis on the

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion with the chemical formula . Salts containing this ion are called nitrates. Nitrates are common components of fertilizers and explosives. Almost all inorganic nitrates are soluble in water. An example of an insolu ...

boom of the early twentieth century. *Insects, including large fossil dragonflies *

Mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

s *

Mesozoic era The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

vertebrates, including a specimen of '' Carnotaurus sastrei'' * Chilean timber *Chilean

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...

Juan Fernández Islands The Juan Fernández Islands ( es, Archipiélago Juan Fernández) are a sparsely inhabited series of islands in the South Pacific Ocean reliant on tourism and fishing. Situated off the coast of Chile, they are composed of three main volcanic ...

*Cultural anthropology, covering the Aymara,

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...

Selk'nam The Selk'nam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, are an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last native groups in South America to be enco ...

Rapanui The Rapa Nui (Rapa Nui: , Spanish: ) are the Polynesians, Polynesian peoples Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous to Easter Island. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the descendants of the original people of Easter Island make up about 60% ...

, Kaweskar, and Yámana. The museum houses the finest public collection of

rongorongo Rongorongo (Rapa Nui: ) is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) that appears to be writing or proto-writing. Numerous attempts at decipherment have been made, with none being successful. Although some c ...

artifacts in the world. *The uses of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

, a collection of

Codelco Codelco (''Corporación Nacional'' ''del'' ''Cobre de Chile'' or, in English, the National Copper Corporation of Chile) is a Chilean state-owned copper mining company. It was formed in 1976 from foreign-owned copper companies that were nationalise ...

, the state mining corporation The oldest mummies in the world are found in the museum, being around 7400 years old (2000 years older than their Egyptian counterparts). Fifteen of them were put into a CAT scan in late 2016. Scientists hope to learn more about the mummification process used by the Chinchorro people of Chile. The 15 mummies were women and children and scientists note that different preservation techniques were used. A collection of

molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is estim ...

from Chile and other parts of the world is present in the museum. The collection has been assembled since the beginning of the study of the natural history of Chile. Juan I. Molina collected 11 species of molluscs in 1782. French zoologists published studies of the molluscs in Chile in the 1800s. In 1853, Rodulfo A. Philippi (a German doctor) was hired as a naturalist by the Chilean government and was appointed director and curator of the Museum. As of 2003, the mollusc collection was being organized and catalogued, taking into account various donations and exchanges made by Philippi until the end of his term in 1897. Philippi's son Federico Philippi served as director of the museum from 1897 to 1910. Medical doctor Eduardo Moore was director from 1910 to 1927. Civil engineer Ricardo Latcham served as director from 1928 to 1943. Naturalist Enrique Gigoux was director from 1943 to 1948. Geologist Humberto Fuenzalida was director from 1949 to 1963; his tenure was marked by a grand expansion at the museum, with the formation of the

malacology Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

laboratory under tutelage of professor Nibaldo Bahamonde. Marine fossils from the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

and the early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...

of 3700 species dating from 1830. 90% of the type specimens of Chilean species are housed here. The zoology department contains fourteen

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

s, mainly Chilean marine and freshwater fish. The anthropological department emphasizes the archeology of Central Chile through the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...

and cultural artifacts of modern or recently extinct peoples of Chile and

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearl ...

. One of its duties is the caretaking of the Plomo Mummy. The Museum is overseen by the Director of the National Cultural Heritage Service, itself a division of the Chilean Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage.

References

External links

A 360° panorama of the museum
{{authority control Museums established in 1830 Museums in Santiago, Chile Natural history museums in Chile 1830 establishments in Chile World's fair architecture in South America 1822 in Chilean law