The Zoological Museum Amsterdam (ZMA) was a

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

located close to Oosterpark in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It was part of the Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Computer Science (Science) of the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

. It was one of the two major natural history museums in the Netherlands. The total collection included approximately 13 million objects and was used mainly for scientific purposes. In addition to the museum function of the management and conservation of collections and exhibition, it was also a major scientific and (university) education function. At the Aquarium Building Artis Department organized exhibitions around the theme of human nature. The museum was divided into three sections –

Vertebrates Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

Invertebrates Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum ...

and

Entomology Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

– and two departments, Exhibitions and Biodiversity Informatics. In 2011, the collection of the Zoological Museum was merged into that of

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center () is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Although its current name and organization are relatively ...

and the

National Herbarium of the Netherlands The National Herbarium of the Netherlands (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Nationaal Herbarium Nederland'') is one of largest herbarium, herbaria in the world with some 5.5 million specimens. It was established in through a decentralized merger of the ma ...

in NCB Naturalis (Dutch Centre for Biodiversity), launched on 26 January 2010. To highlight the move, the Naturalis museum has an exhibition on "Naturalia, circus animals to scientific object", in which objects from the collection of the ZMA are displayed, between 14 October 2011 and 19 August 2012.

References

External links

Zoological Museum Amsterdam
{{authority control Defunct museums in the Netherlands Museums in Amsterdam Natural History Museum, London Natural history museums in the Netherlands University of Amsterdam University museums in the Netherlands