Naturalis Biodiversity Center

Naturalis Biodiversity Center

Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis
Mammoth skeleton on display in the section about prehistoric animals
Location in South Holland in the Netherlands
Established	9 August 1820 (1820-08-09)
Location	Darwinweg 2[1] Leiden, Netherlands
Coordinates	52°09′53″N 4°28′24″E / 52.16472°N 4.47333°E / 52.16472; 4.47333Coordinates: 52°09′53″N 4°28′24″E / 52.16472°N 4.47333°E / 52.16472; 4.47333
Type	National museum Natural history museum Research center
Collections	zoology, botany, geology
Collection size	37 million objects[2]
Visitors	339,550 (2015)[3]
Director	Edwin van Huis[4]
Curator	René Dekker[4]
Public transit access	Leiden Centraal/LUMC[1]
Website	www.naturalis.nl

Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Dutch: Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. Although its current name and organization is relatively recent, its history can be traced back to the early 1800s. Its collections contain approximately 37 million specimens, one of the largest natural history collections in the world.^[5] In late 2016 the center closed its main building for renovations, with plans to re-open in late 2018. Temporary exhibitions are open in the pesthuis entrance building during the renovations.^[6]

History

The beginnings of Naturalis go back to the creation of the National Museum of Natural History by King William I on August 9, 1820. In 1878, the geological and mineralogical collections of the museum separated into two institutions.^[7] These remained distinct until the merger of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (abbreviated RMNH) and the Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie (abbreviated RGM) in 1984, as the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum (NNM) or National Museum of Natural History.^[8]

In 1986, it was determined that the institution should become a public museum, and a new building was designed by Fons Verheijen. The building's reception area incorporated the 1657-1661 Pesthuis, designed by Huybert Corneliszoon van Duyvenvlucht.^[9] Completed in 1998, it was opened on April 7, 1998 by Queen Beatrix.^[7] The new building cost about €60 million, making it the second most expensive museum building in the Netherlands.

As of 2010, the National Museum of Natural History (Naturalis) further combined with the Zoological Museum Amsterdam (ZMA) of the University of Amsterdam, and the Dutch National Herbaria at the universities of Leiden, Amsterdam and Wageningen, to form the Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit (NCB Naturalis).^[10][11][12] The combined institute was formally opened as part of the ‘International Year of Biodiversity 2010’ by Ronald Plasterk and Gerda Verburg.^[13][14]

As of 2012 the name became the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.^[5] Naturalis has partnered with ETI Bioinformatics in support of the Catalogue of Life (CoL), and is working with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.^[15] Funding is in place to support digitization of the massed collections.^[10][16] As of 2015, further renovation and expansion is planned, with a proposed design from Neutelings Riedijk Architecten to be completed in 2018. However, the Pesthuis will no longer be part of the complex.^[17]

Collection

The tower of Naturalis, in which almost the entire collection is housed

The current museum is known for the numerous objects in its collections. Prior to the merger with the Zoölogisch Museum Amsterdam and National Herbarium of the Netherlands, there were approximately 10 million zoological and geological 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 37 million specimens:^[2][10]

• 18,100,000 insects
• 5,800,000 other invertebrates
• 1,900,000 vertebrates
• 3,200,000 fossils
• 800,000 rocks and minerals
• 4,600,000 Vascular plants
• 605,000 mosses
• 282,000 lichens
• 135,000 ferns
• 350,000 fungi
• 250,000 algae
• 12,000 galls
• 6,000 slime molds
• 121,000 wood samples
• 140,000 books
• 14,000 scientific journal titles
• 57,000 prints and drawings
• 13,000 maps
• 91,500 microfiche
• 310.000 photographs, slides and glass negatives

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 centre of Leiden.

Travellers

Among the collections at Naturalis are the papers and field notes of a number of early travellers and naturalists, including the following:

• Heinrich Boie (1794‐1827)
• Pierre-Médard Diard (1794‐1863)
• Eltio Alegondas Forsten (1811‐1843)
• Johan Coenraad van Hasselt (1797‐1823)
• Ludwig Horner (1811‐1838)
• Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn (1809‐1864)
• Pieter Willem Korthals (1807‐1892)
• Heinrich Kuhl (1797‐1821)
• Heinrich Christian Macklot (1799‐1832)
• Salomon Müller (1804‐1863)
• Pieter van Oort (1804‐1834)
• Carl Anton Schwaner (1817‐1851)
• Alexander Zippelius (1797‐1828)

Exhibitions

Permanent exhibitions

The museum has several permanent exhibitions:^[18]

• Nature Theater (Animals, plants, fungi, one-celled organisms, bacteria, stones, and minerals: an impression of nature in all its various forms.)
• Primeval Parade (A parade of fossils shows the history of the earth and the development of life.)
• Earth (Games and signs inform the visitor about the Earth's complexities.)
• Life (It displays how plants and animals live and survive on earth. )
• Earth Inside (For children and their parents to discover in a playful way how nature works.)
• Biotechnology (Games and movies show the visitor how essential DNA is to all life processes.)
• Treasure Chamber (Special security and storage conditions protect the precious gemstones, including a collection that once belonged to the Dutch King William I, and the mounted skins of animals that became extinct over the past few hundred years.)

Temporary exhibitions

• "T. rex in Town" exhibition of Trix, a Tyrannosaurus skeleton, September 10, 2016 to June, 5 2017. ^{[19][20][21][22][23]}

Buildings

• 
  Entrance Naturalis (Pesthuis/Plague house)
• 
  Cash register Naturalis (Pesthuis)
• 
  Naturalis (Museum and Collections) [2013]
• 
  Naturalis (At the right: bridge with zebra pattern)
• 
  Panorama with Pesthuis, main museum building and Darwin House

Collections

• 
  Papaver orientale, J. M. Prange
• 
  Bufo japonicus, Kawahara Keiga
• 
  Harpago chiragra, mollusc
• 
  Labradorite
• 
  Hispaniolan or Cuban Macaw (extinct)
• 
  Propalaeotherium fossil

Visitors

Naturalis had an estimated 285,000 visitors and was the 15th most visited museum of the Netherlands in 2013.^[27] The museum had a record number of 339,550 visitors in 2015.^[3]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Naturalis Leiden.

• Naturalis, official website
• Naturalis extinct birds, 3D presentation
• Naturalis Biodiversity Center at Google Cultural Institute