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, 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 Claudio Gay, 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 The Chilean International Exhibition was a world's fair held in Quinta Normal Park, Santiago, between 16 September 1875 and 16 January 1876 to show Chilean people recent technological and scientific advances. Organisation The event was organised ...

. 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 Humberto Fuenzalida Villegas (1904–1966) was a Chilean geologist, paleontologist and geographer. Fuenzalida headed in turn the geography and geology departments of the University of Chile,Recordando a Don Humberto, Estanislao Godoy. being also f ...

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 ...

*Minerals, with an emphasis on the

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net charge that is not zer ...

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

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 (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising ...

vertebrates, including a specimen of '' Carnotaurus sastrei'' * Chilean timber *Chilean archaeology * Juan Fernández Islands *Cultural anthropology, covering the Aymara, Mapuche, Selk'nam, Rapanui, Kaweskar, and Yámana. The museum houses the finest public collection of rongorongo artifacts in the world. *The uses of copper, 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 nationali ...

, 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 A computed tomography scan (CT scan; formerly called computed axial tomography scan or CAT scan) is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers ...

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 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 and the early Pliocene were quarried from marine sandstone deposits on the north-central coast of Chile in the early 1990s and added to the museum's collection shortly thereafter.

Departments and oversight

The five departments are botany, zoology, entomology, anthropology, and paleontology. The department of botany includes a

herbarium 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 (called ...

of 3700 species dating from 1830. 90% of the type specimens of Chilean species are housed here. The zoology department contains fourteen holotypes, mainly Chilean marine and freshwater fish. The anthropological department emphasizes the archeology of Central Chile through the Inca Empire and cultural artifacts of modern or recently extinct peoples of Chile and Easter Island. One of its duties is the caretaking of the

Plomo Mummy The Plomo Mummy (also known as Boy of El Plomo, El Plomo Mummy, or La Momia del Cerro El Plomo in Spanish) is the well preserved remains of an Incan child found on Cerro El Plomo near Santiago, Chile in 1954. It was discovered by Guillermo Cha ...

. 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