Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a
national museum
A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...
of
natural history and a
research center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
on
biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
in
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
,
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. It was named the
European Museum of the Year
The European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) is presented each year by the European Museum Forum ( EMF) under the auspices of the Council of Europe. The EMYA is considered the most important annual award in the European museum sector.
History
...
2021.
Although its current name and organization are relatively recent, the history of Naturalis can be traced back to the early 1800s. Its collection includes approximately 42 million specimens, making it one of the largest natural history collections in the world.
History
The beginnings of Naturalis go back to the creation of the
Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie
The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (National Museum of Natural History) was a museum on the Rapenburg in Leiden, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1820 by Royal Decree from a merger of several existing collections. This happened on the initi ...
(abbreviated RMNH, National Museum of Natural History) by Dutch
King William I on August 9, 1820. In 1878, the geological and mineralogical collections of the museum were split off into a separate museum,
remaining distinct until the merger of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie with the
Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie
The Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie was a museum of geological and mineralogical collections. Up to 1878, geological and mineralogical collections formed part of Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, the National Museum of Natural History ...
(abbreviated RGM) in 1984, to form the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum (NNM) or National Museum of Natural History.
In 1986, it was decided that the institution should become a public museum, and a new building was designed by the Dutch architect
Fons Verheijen
Fons may refer to:
Places
* Fons, Ardèche, France
* Fons, Gard, France
* Fons, Lot, France
Other uses
* ''Fons memorabilium universi'', a Renaissance encyclopedia
* Fontus, an ancient Roman water deity
* Leonard Fons (1903–1956), American ...
. The building's reception area incorporated the 1657-1661 ''Pesthuis'', designed by Huybert Corneliszoon van Duyvenvlucht.
Completed in 1998, it was opened on April 7, 1998, by Queen
Beatrix of the Netherlands
Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013.
Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband ...
.
The new building costs were about €60 million, making it the second most expensive museum building in the Netherlands.
In 2010 the National Museum of Natural History (Naturalis) further combined with the
Zoological Museum Amsterdam
The Zoological Museum Amsterdam (ZMA) was a natural history museum located close to Oosterpark in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was part of the Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Computer Science (Science) of the University of Amsterdam.
It was o ...
(ZMA) of the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
, and the
Dutch National Herbaria at the universities of Leiden, Amsterdam and Wageningen, to form the Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit (NCB Naturalis).
The combined institute was formally opened as part of the ‘International Year of Biodiversity 2010’ by Education Minister
Ronald Plasterk
Ronald Hans Anton Plasterk (; born 12 April 1957) is a Dutch scientist, entrepreneur and retired politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). He has earned a PhD degree in biology, specialised in molecular genetics. Being a former Minister of the Du ...
and Agriculture Minister
Gerda Verburg
Gerritje "Gerda" Verburg (born 19 August 1957) is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and trade union leader
From 2011 until 2016 Verburg served as Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherl ...
.
In 2012 the name became the ''Naturalis Biodiversity Center''.
Naturalis has partnered with ETI Bioinformatics in support of the
Catalog of Life
The Catalogue of Life is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxonomic Inf ...
(CoL), and is working with the
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around the ...
.
Funding is in place to support digitization of the massed collections.
In 2015, further renovation and expansion was planned, with a proposed design from Neutelings Riedijk Architecten. The ''Pesthuis'' (historical Plague hospital) will no longer be part of the complex.
However, a lawsuit by the previous architect postponed these plans. The museum, except the research facilities, was closed from September 2018 to mid 2019 due to renovations. Temporary exhibitions were held in the Pesthuis, the former entrance building, during the renovations. The new building was finished in the summer of 2019 with the museum opening again on August 31 of that year.
Within a year of the opening the museum had to close again in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic until June 2020. The museum reopened on June 8 with free entrance for essential workers. On July 1 the museum was reopened for the public charging full prices again. It closed again in the winters of 2020 and 2021 due to further national COVID-19 measures.
Naturalis was named the
European Museum of the Year
The European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) is presented each year by the European Museum Forum ( EMF) under the auspices of the Council of Europe. The EMYA is considered the most important annual award in the European museum sector.
History
...
2021 in the annual awards of the
European Museum Forum
The European Museum Forum is a museum organization under the Council of Europe. It is an independent, non-profit-making charity, registered in the United Kingdom and founded in 1977.
The European Museum Forum organizes the annual European Museum ...
. The jury cited Naturalis as "a very inventive museum with beautiful exhibitions", and also that the museum’s "agile ability" to move on and transform itself.
Collection
The current museum is known for the numerous objects in its collections. Prior to the merger with the
Zoölogisch Museum Amsterdam
The Zoological Museum Amsterdam (ZMA) was a natural history museum located close to Oosterpark in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was part of the Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Computer Science (Science) of the University of Amsterdam.
It was o ...
and
National Herbarium of the Netherlands
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
, there were approximately 10 million
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 ...
and
geological
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...
specimens in the Naturalis collection. Following the merger with the collections of the Zoölogisch Museum Amsterdam and National Herbarium of the Netherlands in 2010–12, there are now approximately 42 million specimens:
The largest part of the collections are stored in a 60-meter-high tower, a landmark in Leiden, opened in April 1998. Some parts of the collections are stored in a depot in the former museum building at the Raamsteeg in the city center of Leiden.
The '' Index Herbariorum'' code assigned to Naturalis is L and it is used when citing housed 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 ...
specimens.
Explorers
Among the collections at Naturalis are the papers and field notes of a number of early travelers and naturalists, including the following:
Exhibitions
Permanent exhibitions
The museum has several permanent exhibitions:
* Live Science (a highly interactive gallery dedicated to displaying the institute's function as science center and collection depot to the public)
* Life (provides a tour along multiple biotopes, from the deep sea to the sky, showing mounted specimens and replica's of the highlights of the Earth's present fauna)
*Earth (exhibits the way human culture is entangled with system earth. Artefacts and minerals from four regions with high geological activity, Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
, are displayed surrounded by a panorama
A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...
that combines the environment of these regions)
* Dinosaur Era (Exhibits a selection of fossils from the Paleozoic and mainly the Mesozoic period with a focus on dinosaurs. The highlight of the gallery is Trix which is one of the most complete and best preserved ''Tyrannosaurus
''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosa ...
'' skeletons found so far. On top of that, Trix is one of the two only authentic tyrannosaurs that are permanently kept in Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. The other one is Tristan
Tristan (Latin/ Brythonic: ''Drustanus''; cy, Trystan), also known as Tristram or Tristain and similar names, is the hero of the legend of Tristan and Iseult. In the legend, he is tasked with escorting the Irish princess Iseult to wed ...
, which belongs to a Danish proprietor albeit being currently on exhibit at the Natural History Museum, Berlin
The Natural History Museum (german: Museum für Naturkunde) is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major muse ...
, in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.)
*Ice Age (dedicated to the Netherlands during the last ice age, a large scale model showcases the Dutch landscape and its fauna of that time, a large collection of Dutch Pleistocene fossils is exhibited as well as full skeletons of mammals from that time, including a woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...
)
*Early Humans (a homage to Dutch scientist Eugène Dubois
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (; 28 January 1858 – 16 December 1940) was a Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery of ''Pithecanthropus erectus'' (later redesignated ''Homo erectus''), or "Java ...
and his discovery of the Java Man
Java Man (''Homo erectus erectus'', formerly also ''Anthropopithecus erectus'', ''Pithecanthropus erectus'') is an early human fossil discovered in 1891 and 1892 on the island of Java (Dutch East Indies, now part of Indonesia). Estimated to be b ...
(''Homo erectus
''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...
'') which are kept at Naturalis. The holotype Trinil 2 is on display here.)
*Seduction (showcases procreation in Nature, it illustrates the rituals of courting, coupling, and raising offspring in a playful way)
*Death (a gallery dedicated to circle of life)
Current Temporary exhibitions
* Nature's Treasure Trove (25 valuable and extraordinary collection objections that are not on permanent display are publicly displayed under special conditions to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of the museum's collection) - September 30, 2020 - September 5, 2021
Past Temporary exhibitions
During the renovation of the main building the former entrance building, the historic Pesthuis, was used for three temporary exhibits from 2016 to 2018.
* T-rex in Town (before Trix entered in permanent exhibition at the Museum, the skeleton was first exhibited at the Pesthuis from September 10, 2016, to June 5, 2017).
*Op Expeditie met Naturalis (English: Expedition with Naturalis, a summer holiday program aimed to involve children with science and nature from June 24 to September 10, 2017)
*GIF! (English: VENOM!, an exhibit with live animals, centred around the popular Dutch biologist and Naturalis researcher Freek Vonk
Freek Jacobus Vonk (born 24 February 1983) is a Dutch biologist who specializes in herpetology with a special interest in snake venom. He travels the world in search of the most spectacular and bizarre creatures. He has been bitten by a number of ...
, showing the different kinds of venom and poison in nature from October 14, 2017, to September 2, 2018)
Virtual Museum
During the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
the museum was made virtually accessible. The visitor can move freely through the exhibitions with information and short videos available in Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
or English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
to add context to some of the museum's highlights.
Virtual Museum
Research Institute
Besides its role as a museum, Naturalls is also a scientific research institute collaborating with most Dutch universities. Around 120 researchers and 200 guest researchers are working at Naturalis in nine groups on topics such as biodiversity, botany, marine biology, or geology. Naturalis is a (co-)initiator of several citizen science
Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...
projects. With the project Arise, which aims to map all biodiversity in the Netherlands, Naturalis is a player in one of the largest Dutch research infrastructure projects.
Former Buildings
Pesthuis1.JPG, Entrance Naturalis (Pesthuis/plague house
A pest house, plague house, pesthouse or fever shed was a type of building used for persons afflicted with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, smallpox or typhus. Often used for forcible quarantine, many towns and cities had one ...
)
Naturalis_004.jpg, Cash register Naturalis (Pesthuis)
Naturalis1.JPG, Naturalis (Museum and Collections) 013Naturalis6.JPG, Naturalis (At the right: bridge with zebra pattern)
Naturalis Biodiversity Center - Museum - Garden 13 panorama - Pesthuis, museum garden and museum building Naturalis.jpg, Panorama with Pesthuis, main museum building and Darwin House
Collections
File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - L.0939608 - Prange, J.M. - Papaver orientale - Artwork.jpeg , ''Papaver orientale
''Papaver orientale'', the Oriental poppy, is a perennial flowering plant native to the Caucasus, northeastern Turkey, and northern Iran.
Oriental poppies grow a mound of leaves that are hairy and finely dissected in spring. They gather e ...
'', J. M. Prange
File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.ART.598 - Bufo japonicus - Kawahara Keiga - 1823 - 1829 - Siebold Collection - pencil drawing - water colour.jpeg , ''Bufo japonicus
The Japanese common toad, Japanese warty toad or Japanese toad (''Bufo japonicus'') is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to Japan. Its natural habitats are subarctic forests, temperate forests, temperate shrubland, swamps, f ...
'', Kawahara Keiga
File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.MOL.170312 - Harpago chiragra (Linnaeus, 1758) - Strombidae - Mollusc shell.jpeg, ''Harpago chiragra
''Harpago chiragra'', common name the Chiragra spider conch, is a species of very large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Strombidae, the true conchs.Bouchet, P. (2011). Harpago chiragra (Linnaeus, 1758). Accessed through ...
'', marine gastropod
File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - Labradorite - feldspar mineral.jpg , Labradorite
File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.110095 - Ara tricolor - Extinct.webm , Hispaniolan or Cuban Macaw (extinct)
File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - Museum - Exhibition Primeval parade 26 - Propalaeotherium fossil, an extinct perissodactyl.jpg , ''Propalaeotherium
''Propalaeotherium'' was an early genus of perissodactyl endemic to Europe and Asia during the early Eocene. There are currently six recognised species within the genus, with ''P. isselanum'' as the type species (named by Georges Cuvier in 1824 ...
'' fossil
File:Naturalis-Trix-Trex-1.jpg, ''Tyrannosaurus rex
''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...
'' Trix fossil in its permanent exhibition room
Visitors
Naturalis had an estimated 285,000 visitors and was the 15th most visited museum of the Netherlands in 2013.[ Daan van Lent & Pieter van Os,]
Musea doen het goed: aantal bezoekers in 2013 fors gestegen
, '' NRC Handelsblad'', 2013. Retrieved on 20 December 2014. The museum had a record number of 339,550 visitors in 2015.
References
External links
Naturalis
official website
Naturalis extinct birds
3D presentation
Naturalis Biodiversity Center at Google Cultural Institute
Bioportal
access to the Naturalis digital collection
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures completed in 1998
Museums established in 1984
Museums in Leiden
National museums of the Netherlands
Natural history museums in the Netherlands
Paleontology in the Netherlands
Science and technology in the Netherlands
Photo archives in the Netherlands