Wildlife conservation, natural history and biodiversity center Naturalis - Leiden, The Netherlands
Posted by: 
Axel-F
N 52° 09.888 E 004° 28.300
31U E 600656 N 5780389
Famous Dutch museum of natural history, conservation, and research center on biodiversity in Leiden.
Waymark Code: WM10588
Location: Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Date Posted: 02/28/2019
Views: 3
Website of the museum:https://www.naturalis.nl/
Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Dutch: Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a famous Dutch museum of natural history, conservation, and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, The Netherlands.
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 37 million specimens, making it one of the largest conserved natural history collections in the world.
History
The beginnings of Naturalis go back to the creation of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (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 (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. 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. 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 (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).The combined institute was formally opened as part of the ‘International Year of Biodiversity 2010’ by Education Minister of Ronald Plasterk and Agriculture Minister Gerda Verburg.
In 2012 the name became Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Naturalis has partnered with ETI Bioinformatics in support of the Catalogue of Life (CoL), and is working with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
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 42 million specimens:
14,600,000 insects
8,000,000 mollusca
1,600,000 other invertebrates
615,000 vertebrates: 380,000 birds, 125,000 fish, 60,000 reptiles and amphibians, 50,000 mammals
9,100,000 fossils
500,000 rocks and minerals
4,900,000 Vascular plants
705,000 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.
Explorers
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
The museum has several permanent exhibitions:
* 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)
Source: Wikipedia
Admission Fees:
Adults: Euro 12,00
Children 0 t/m 3 : Euro 0,00
Children 4 t/m 17 : Euro 9,00
Parking : Euro 5,00
Hours of operation:
Daily from 10:00 till 17:00 hours.
Closed: 27 april, 3 october en 25 december.
--> Temporarly closed until mid. 2019 (check their website)
Parking: N 52° 00.000 W 005° 00.000
Services Provided:
Souvenir shop
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Visit Instructions:
There will be no requirement for posting a visit; but a photo of you with your GPS or just your GPS somewhere on the museum grounds or in the museum would be fun. Preferrably at the entrance or near the museum sign. Actually going IN the museum is also NOT required for posting a log.