The Chilean National Museum of Natural History ( 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 located in the Commune of Santiago with its namesake commune, Quinta Normal, situated just outside the park across the communal boundary. The park spans and is bound ...

, and was founded in 1830 by the French naturalist

Claudio Gay Claude Gay, often named Claudio Gay in Spanish texts, (18 March 1800 – 29 November 1873), was a French botanist, naturalist and illustrator. This explorer carried out some of the first investigations about Chilean flora, fauna, geology and geo ...

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

, 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 existing museum building was constructed in 1875 as a palace, or pavilion, for the Chilean International Exhibition. 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 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 damaged the museum. In

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

a earthquake damaged seriously the museum, leaving it closed until 2012, and since only the first floor is avaible, while the second floor still waits for repairs.

Exhibits and collections

National Museum of Natural History main hall Santiago Chile 2009 May 24

The museum 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. It is one of ten rorqual species, and the third-largest member after the blue and fin whales. It can grow to in length and weigh as much as . Two subspecies are recognized: ...

*Minerals, with an emphasis on the

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion with the chemical formula . salt (chemistry), Salts containing this ion are called nitrates. Nitrates are common components of fertilizers and explosives. Almost all inorganic nitrates are solubility, soluble in wa ...

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

Mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

s *

Mesozoic era The Mesozoic Era is the era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian reptiles such as the dinosaurs, and of gymnosperms s ...

vertebrates, including a specimen of '' Carnotaurus sastrei'' * Chilean timber *Chilean

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Juan Fernández Islands The Juan Fernández Islands () are a sparsely inhabited series of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, reliant on tourism and fishing. Situated off the coast of Chile, they are composed of three main volcanic islands: Robinson Crusoe Island, R ...

*Cultural anthropology, covering the

Aymara Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

, Selkʼnam,

Rapanui The Rapa Nui (Rapa Nui: , Spanish: ) are the Indigenous Polynesian peoples of Easter Island. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the descendants of the original people of Easter Island make up about 60% of the current Easter Island population ...

, Kaweskar, and Yámana. The museum houses the finest public collection of

rongorongo Rongorongo ( or ; Rapa Nui: ) is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Easter Island that has the appearance of writing or proto-writing. Numerous attempts at decipherment have been made, but none have been successful. Although ...

artifacts in the world. *The uses of

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

, a collection of

Codelco The National Copper Corporation of Chile (), abbreviated as Codelco, is a Chilean state-owned mining company and the largest copper mining company in the world. It was formed in 1976 from foreign-owned copper companies that were nationalised in 1 ...

, the state mining corporation The oldest mummies in the world are held in the museum, around 7400 years old (2000 years older than their Egyptian counterparts). Fifteen of them were subjected to

CAT scan A computed tomography scan (CT scan), formerly called computed axial tomography scan (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 ...

s in late 2016, with scientists hoping to learn more about the mummification process used by the Chinchorro people of Chile. The 15 mummies had been women and children upon whom different preservation techniques were used. A collection of

molluscs Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

from Chile and other parts of the world is held in the museum. The collection dates to 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. As of 2003, the mollusc collection was being organized and catalogued, including donations and exchanges made by director Philippi until the end of his term in 1897. 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, from Ancient Greek μαλακός (''malakós''), meaning "soft", and λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (molluscs or mollusks), the second-largest ...

laboratory under tutelage of professor Nibaldo Bahamonde. Marine fossils from the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

and the early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, 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 sh ...

of 3700 species dating from 1830. 90% of the type specimens of Chilean species are housed here. The zoology department contains fourteen

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

s, mainly Chilean marine and freshwater fish. The anthropological department emphasizes the archeology of Central Chile through the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

and cultural artifacts of modern or recently extinct peoples of Chile and

Easter Island Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

. One of its duties is the caretaking of the Plomo Mummy.

Directors

The Museum is supervised by the Director of the National Cultural Heritage Service, itself a division of the Chilean Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage: * 1830: Frenchman Jean-François Dauxion-Lavaysse was the first director * 1853: Geman doctor Rodulfo A. Philippi hired as a naturalist, director and curator * 1897: Philippi's son Federico Philippi became director * 1910: Medical doctor Eduardo Moore (until 1927) * 1928: Civil engineer Ricardo Latcham * 1943: Naturalist Enrique Gigoux (until 1948) * 1949: Geologist Humberto Fuenzalida * 1964: Anthropologist Grete Mostny led the museum until 1982.Grete Mostny
Memorial for the victims of National Socialism, University of Vienna, Retrieved 9 November 2015

References

External links

A 360° panorama of the museum
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History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

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