The La Plata Museum ( es, Museo de la Plata) is a
natural history museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in
La Plata
La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. It is part of the (Natural Sciences School) of the UNLP (
National University of La Plata
The La Plata National University ( es, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, UNLP) is one of the most important Argentine national universities and the biggest one situated in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province. It has over 90 ...
).
The building, long, today houses 3 million fossils and relics (including 44,000 botanical items), an
amphitheatre
An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
, opened in 1992, and a 58,000-volume library, serving over 400 university researchers. Around 400,000 visitors (8% of whom are from outside Argentina) pass through its doors yearly, including a thousand visiting researchers.
History
Childhood excursions with his father and older brother led the 14-year-old
Francisco Moreno
Francisco Pascasio Moreno (May 31, 1852 – November 22, 1919) was a prominent explorer and academic in Argentina, where he is usually referred to as ''Perito'' Moreno (''perito'' means "specialist, expert"). Perito Moreno has been credited as on ...
to mount a display of his growing collection of
anthropological
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
,
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
and bone findings at his family's
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
home in 1866, unwittingly laying the foundations for the future La Plata Museum.
Moreno spent the time between 1873 and 1877 exploring his country's then-remote and largely unmapped
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...
, becoming the first non-indigenous Argentine to reach
Lake Nahuel Huapi
Nahuel Huapi Lake ( es, Lago Nahuel Huapí) is a lake in the lake region of northern Patagonia between the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, in Argentina. The tourist center of Bariloche is on the southern shore of the lake.
The June 20 ...
and what was later named
Lago Argentino
Lago Argentino is a lake in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, at . It is the biggest freshwater lake in Argentina, with a surface area of (maximum width: ). It has an average depth of , and a maximum depth of .
The lake lies with ...
("Argentine Lake") and its imposing glacier (named
Perito Moreno Glacier
The Perito Moreno Glacier () is a glacier located in Los Glaciares National Park in southwest Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is one of the most important tourist attractions in the Argentine Patagonia.
The ice formation, in length, is one ...
in his honor). The large body of man-made and
paleontological
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (geology), epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes t ...
samples he gathered and carefully classified during this survey (which also led to the first border
demarcation treaty with neighboring
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, in 1881) led to his establishment of the Buenos Aires Archaeological and Anthropological Museum in 1877.
Internationally respected naturalists such as
Paul Broca
Pierre Paul Broca (, also , , ; 28 June 1824 – 9 July 1880) was a French physician, anatomist and anthropologist. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that is named after him. Broca's area is involve ...
and
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...
contributed valuable donations to the institution, which was incorporated into the
Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum
The Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Argentine Museum ( es, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia) is a public museum located in the Caballito section of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
History and overview
The museum owes it ...
. The 1882 establishment of the city of
La Plata
La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...
as the new capital of the
Province of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...
led the provincial legislature to requisition the collection in 1884 for the construction of a new facility set in a northside park, designed by renowned urbanist
.
The La Plata Museum was inaugurated on November 19, 1888 (the sixth anniversary of the city's founding). As his collections had been the museum's ''leitmotif'', Moreno was named its first director.
[ As director of La Plata Museum of Natural History Moreno sacked ]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, especially ...
in 1888 even denying him entry to the museum. In the process of being sacked Ameghino kept part of a fossil collection (gathered by his brother Carlos Ameghino
Carlos Ciriaco Ameghino (16 June 1865 – 12 April 1936) was an Argentine paleontologist and explorer who accompanied his brother Florentino Ameghino throughout Argentina searching for fossils.
Scientific career
Carlos Ameghino was educated ...
in Santa Cruz Province on behalf of the museum) to complete its description. Florentino Ameghino's friend Santiago Roth Santiago Roth (14 June 1850 – 4 August 1924) was a Swiss Argentine paleontologist and academic known for his fossil collections and Patagonian expeditions.
Life
Kaspar Jakob (Spanish: Santiago) was born and raised in Herisau, Canton Appenzel ...
was another early contributor to the museums paleontological collection. Moreno named Roth as head of the Paleontology Department of the museum in 1895.[Weigelt, Gertrud: ''Santiago Roth 1850-1924. Ein Berner als wissenschaftlicher Pionier in Südamerika'', Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde, Paul Haupt Bern, 1951/1, pp. 19–39]
Moreno initially struggled to maintain the institution and its collections, a result of sparing legislative appropriations which budgeted for only nine assistants. These limitations helped persuade Moreno to incorporate the museum into the new and growing University of La Plata
The La Plata National University ( es, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, UNLP) is one of the most important Argentine national universities and the biggest one situated in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province. It has over 90 ...
(today Argentina's second-largest) in 1906. This led to his retirement as director, though by no means of his role as its preeminent caretaker, which occupied him until his death in 1919.
Its collections drew the attention of the world's anthropological community from the beginning, attracting numerous visiting international scholars. It earned the American Alliance of Museums
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
' accreditation, as well as plaudits from one of the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
' most prestigious naturalists at the time, Henry Augustus Ward
Henry Augustus Ward (March 9, 1834 – July 4, 1906) was an American naturalist and geologist.
Biography
Henry Augustus Ward was born in Rochester, New York on March 9, 1834. After attending Williams College and the Lawrence Scientific School ...
, who deemed the museum to be the fourth most important of its kind in the world.
Museum Characteristics
The museum has around 3 million items in its collection, though only a small part of these are housed in exhibits. In large part, the museum's prestige comes from its collection of large mammal fossils from the third and fourth periods of the Cenozoic Era
The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configu ...
, fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s found in the Pampas
The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazil ...
region of northern Argentina.
Argentine Trilobite
Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the At ...
s from the Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...
period and Graptolites
Graptolites are a group of colonial animals, members of the subclass Graptolithina within the class Pterobranchia. These filter-feeding organisms are known chiefly from fossils found from the Middle Cambrian ( Miaolingian, Wuliuan) through th ...
from the Silurian
The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...
period are also on display. The museum also has zoological
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...
, entomological
Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
and botanic exhibits.
Archaeological
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 landscap ...
and ethnographically
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
themed exhibits from Argentina and Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
are also displayed. Although the museum houses primarily South American themed exhibits, there is also an Egyptian exhibit that shows the reconstruction of the Aksha Temple. The archaeological collection shows the cultural development of the Americas from the Aceramic Aceramic is defined as "not producing pottery". In archaeology, the term means "without pottery".
Aceramic societies usually used bark, basketry, gourds and leather for containers. It is sometimes used to refer to a specific early Neolithic perio ...
period (12,800 A.C.) to the time of the Incan 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 admin ...
and the arrival
Arrival(s) or The Arrival(s) may refer to:
Film
* ''The Arrival'' (1991 film), an American science fiction horror film
* ''The Arrival'' (1996 film), an American-Mexican science fiction horror film
* ''Arrival'' (film), a 2016 American science ...
of the Europeans.
The museum may have modernized its exhibits and added technological mediums, but it still maintains an Osteological
Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morphology, func ...
exhibit with the same characteristics, criteria and concepts that it had near the beginning of the twentieth century. Along with this, the pathway through the museum maintains the original concept of a tour through a timeline of evolutionary history. This is in accordance with the dominant ideas of the scientific community near the end of the nineteenth century.
Egyptian Exhibit
Because of the planned construction of a levee
A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...
in the Nile river
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...
that would flood the zone, UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
, and the Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
ese, Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian and Argentine governments funded a reservation and investigation rescue mission. This resulted in three excavation campaigns carried out by Argentine archaeologists between 1961 and 1963. They excavated the temple of Ramesses II
Ramesses II ( egy, wikt:rꜥ-ms-sw, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is oft ...
from the thirteenth century and in return for their work, the La Plata Museum received 300 items, 60 of which pertained to the temple of Ramesses II. The remaining items were found in an Egyptian tomb
A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a :wikt:repository, repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be ...
or other prehistoric sites and cemeteries.
Dardo Rocha
Dardo Rocha (September 1, 1838 – September 6, 1921) was an Argentine naval officer, lawyer and politician best known as the founder of the city of La Plata and of the University of La Plata.
Life and times
Juan José Dardo Rocha was born t ...
also donated three mummies
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furth ...
dating from around 2,700 years ago that were conserved in their sarcophagi
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a cadaver, corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from ...
.
Gallery
File:Museo de Ciencias Naturales de La Plata en los años 1930s.jpg, Facade of the museum in the 1930s.
File:Compared Osteology Room La Plata Museum.JPG, Comparative osteology
Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morphology, funct ...
hall.
File:Museo LP 100 sala etnografía.JPG, Ethnography
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
hall.
File:La Cienaga culture exhibit.JPG, La Ciénaga culture exhibit.
File:La Plata Museum Oceanic Exhibit.jpg, Oceanic Exhibit
References and external links
*
''Museo de La Plata''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Museo de La Plata
Natural history museums in Argentina
Buildings and structures in La Plata
Museums in Buenos Aires Province
Museums established in 1884
Infrastructure completed in 1888
Fossil museums
National University of La Plata
Tourist attractions in La Plata
Paleontology in Argentina