The Swedish Museum of Natural History ( sv, Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, literally, the National Museum of Natural History), in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...
, is one of two major
museums of natural history in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
,
the other one being located in
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
.
The museum was founded in 1819 by the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but goes back to the collections acquired mostly through donations by the academy since its foundation in 1739. These collections had first been made available to the public in 1786. The museum was separated from the Academy in 1965.
One of the keepers of the collections of the academy during its earlier history was
Anders Sparrman, a student of
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...
and participant in the voyages of Captain
James Cook. Another important name in the history of the museum is the zoologist, paleontologist and archaeologist
Sven Nilsson, who brought the previously disorganised zoological collections of the museum into order during his time as keeper (1828–1831) before returning to
Lund as professor.
The present buildings for the museum in
Frescati, Stockholm, was designed by the architect
Axel Anderberg and completed in 1916, topped with a
dome
A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...
. it is the largest museum building in Sweden.
The main campus of
Stockholm University
Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, ...
was later built next to the museum.
The museum has Sweden's first purpose-built
IMAX Dome
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating.
Graeme ...
cinema called
Cosmonova, which opened in a dedicated annex of the museum in 1993.
The cinema is also the largest planetarium in Sweden.
The ''
Index Herbariorum
The Index Herbariorum provides a global directory of herbaria and their associated staff. This searchable online index allows scientists rapid access to data related to 3,400 locations where a total of 350 million botanical specimens are p ...
'' code assigned to this museum is S
and it is used when citing housed specimens.
See also
*
List of museums in Stockholm
The following is a list of museums in and around Stockholm.
Art
* Artipelag
* Millesgården
*Milliken Gallery
*Moderna Museet
* Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities
*National Gallery
* Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum
*Swedish Centre for Architecture and Des ...
References
External links
*
{{authority control
1819 establishments in Sweden
Museums established in 1916
Natural history museums in Sweden
Museums in Stockholm
Natural history of Sweden
Science and technology in Sweden
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Domes
National museums of Sweden
Museums established in 1819
Art Nouveau architecture in Stockholm
Art Nouveau museum buildings