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The Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Argentine Museum () is a public museum located in the Caballito neighborhood of
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
,
Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
.


History

The museum owes its existence to a proposal made by
Bernardino Rivadavia Bernardino de la Trinidad González Rivadavia (May 20, 1780 – September 2, 1845) was the first President of Argentina, then called the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, from February 8, 1826 to June 27, 1827. He was educated at th ...
before the
First Triumvirate The First Triumvirate was an informal political alliance among three prominent politicians in the late Roman Republic: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gaius Julius Caesar. The republican constitution had many veto points. ...
of the
United Provinces of the Río de la Plata The United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (), earlier known as the United Provinces of South America (), was a name adopted in 1816 by the Congress of Tucumán for the region of South America that declared independence in 1816, with the Sove ...
in 1812. The ongoing struggle for Independence from the Spanish colonial period stalled Rivadavia's project, however, until 1823, when he promoted construction of a building for the museum as a member of Governor Martín Rodríguez's cabinet.Historia del macn
on Museum website
The original museum opened in 1826 and was housed
downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
in a loft inside the Santo Domingo Convent, which had been made available to host Rivadavia after his expulsion of the
Dominican order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...
from Buenos Aires. Rivadavia closely oversaw the construction of the institution, the first of its kind in South America, and appointed
Italian Argentine Italian Argentines (; , or ''tanos'' in Rioplatense Spanish) are Argentine-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Argentina during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people ...
botanist Carlos Ferraris as its first director. Receiving a large gift of materials and equipment from
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
Minister Bartolomé Muñoz in 1813, the museum started with a collection of 800 animal and 1500 mineral specimens, among others. Rivadavia also appointed a noted Italian
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
, Ottaviano Fabrizio Mossotti, who installed the nation's first
observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...
,
meteorological station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...
and
experimental physics Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and o ...
laboratory during his tenure at the facility from 1828 to 1835. Among those who consulted the museum's growing staff of researchers was
Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...
, who requisitioned numerous meteorological studies for the
Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...
. The rise of the paramount Governor of Buenos Aires,
Juan Manuel de Rosas Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confedera ...
, turned to be the renowned institution's undoing. Devoutly religious, Governor Rosas returned the convent to the Dominican order in October 1835, forcing the museum to relocate to smaller, nearby buildings. Much of its equipment and research was lost during the forced relocation, and Ferrari and Mossotti returned to
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. Rosas' overthrow in 1852 helped lead to the creation of the Society of Friends of Natural History, who had the museum relocated in 1854 to the " Illuminated block," the former Temple of St. Ignatius and its prestigious academy maintained by the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
before their suppression in 1773. The recovering of the museum motivated the German naturalist
Hermann Burmeister Karl Hermann Konrad Burmeister (also known as Carlos Germán Conrado Burmeister) (15 January 1807 – 2 May 1892) was a German Argentine zoologist, entomologist, herpetologist, botany, botanist, and coleopterologist. He served as a professor at ...
to stay in Buenos Aires. A visit to the museum followed in 1857. Recommended by Humboldt, Herman was appointed as its director in 1862. Burmeister founded the Argentine Paleontological Society in concert with the
University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...
and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Córdoba in 1870, extending the interest for the field to the nation's hinterland. Burmeister also founded the museum's first periodical in 1874, opening the museum and its research to active peer review. Notable among the European researchers who took notice was Dutch zoologist Hendrik Weyenbergh, who arrived in Córdoba, where he founded the Argentine National Academy of Sciences. The museum published numerous works under Burmeister's direction, who also donated a sizable part of its growing collection for the sake of the new La Plata Museum in 1884. An accident at the museum cost its noted German Argentine director his life in 1892. The museum was later directed by zoologist
Florentino Ameghino Florentino Ameghino (born Giovanni Battista Fiorino Giuseppe Ameghino; September 19, 1853 – August 6, 1911) was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist, whose fossil discoveries on the Argentine Pampas, especial ...
, its first Argentinian director. Ameghino incorporated adjoining buildings to the museum, which remained inadequate for its vast collection and facilities. Addressing this, Director Martín Doello-Jurado secured
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
' authorization for new museum facilities in 1925. Built on the western end of Parque Centenario. The first wing of the new museum was given in 1929 and the institution was inaugurated in 1937. Part of the museum's collection was transferred to the University of Buenos Aires Ethnographic Museum during the administration of President
Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertad ...
, who dismissed Doello-Jurado in 1946 as part of a wider intervention in national academics. Perón, however, also ordered the construction in 1948 of the museum's annex, which housed the National Natural Sciences Institute. The museum was transferred to the National Research Council (
CONICET The National Scientific and Technical Research Council (, CONICET) is an Argentine government agency which directs and co-ordinates most of the scientific and technical research done in universities and institutes. History The National Scient ...
) in 1996 and, continuing to thrive, an internet data bank was created for the museum in 2002. Besides the Natural Sciences Institute, the museum houses thirteen permanent exhibition halls, including an
aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...
, a display with specimens collected from Argentina's numerous
research station Research stations are facilities where scientific investigation, Data collection, collection, analysis and experimentation occurs. A research station is a facility that is built for the purpose of conducting scientific research. There are also man ...
s in
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
, a
geological Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...
collection centered on
meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...
s found in Argentina, a
paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...
section notable for its ''
Carnotaurus ''Carnotaurus'' (; ) is a genus of Theropoda, theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous period, probably sometime between 72 and 69 million years ago. The only species is ''Carnotaurus sastrei''. Known from a si ...
,
Eoraptor ''Eoraptor'' () is a genus of small, lightly built, Basal (phylogenetics), basal sauropodomorpha, sauropodomorph dinosaur. One of the earliest-known dinosaurs and one of the earliest sauropodomorphs, it lived approximately 231 to 228 million yea ...
,
Herrerasaurus ''Herrerasaurus'' is likely a genus of saurischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic period. Measuring long and weighing around , this genus was one of the earliest dinosaurs from the fossil record. Its name means "Herrera's lizard", after the ...
'' and '' Patagosaurus'' fossils, among others, and a
Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...
paleontology display featuring '' Glyptodon,
Macrauchenia ''Macrauchenia'' ("long llama", based on the now-invalid llama genus, ''Auchenia'', from Greek "big neck") is an extinct genus of large ungulate native to South America from the Pliocene or Middle Pleistocene to the end of the Late Pleistocene. I ...
,
Megatherium ''Megatherium'' ( ; from Greek () 'great' + () 'beast') is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene through the end of the Late Pleistocene. It is best known for the elephant-sized type spe ...
'' and ''
Smilodon ''Smilodon'' is an extinct genus of Felidae, felids. It is one of the best known saber-toothed predators and prehistoric mammals. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats ...
'' fossils. Academics and the general public can also avail themselves of a science auditorium, an art gallery, library and a café.


Gallery


Collections

File:El Toba meteorite - 2.jpg, File:MACNBR007.JPG, File:MACNBR011.JPG, File:MACNBR012.JPG, File:MACNBR013.JPG, File:MACNBR026.JPG, File:MACNBR031.JPG, File:MACNBR036.JPG, File:Toxodon skeleton in BA.JPG, File:Hippidion skeleton.JPG, File:Skeleton of Vanellus chilensis.JPG, File:Museo de ciencias naturales - panoramio (2).jpg


Building

File:MACNBR017.JPG File:MACNBR039.JPG, File:MACN24021402.JPG File:032 Arg BA Museo BR.JPG File:Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales.jpg Falso cementerio - Museo de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia.jpg


References


External links

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''Wander Argentina''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum Natural history museums in Argentina Museums in Buenos Aires Dinosaur museums in Argentina Museums established in 1812 1812 establishments in Argentina 1812 establishments in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Buildings and structures completed in 1929 1929 establishments in Argentina