Chilean National Museum of Natural History

For other uses, see National Museum of Natural History (disambiguation).

Natural history museum in Santiago, Chile

Chilean National Museum of Natural History

Museo Nacional de Historia Natural Chile

Established| 1830
Location| Santiago, Chile
Type| Natural history museum
Website| mnhn.gob.cl

The Chilean National Museum of Natural History (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Historia Natural or MNHN) 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, and was founded in 1830 by the French naturalist Claudio Gay.

## History

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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.[1] 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.[2]

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.[3] In 2010 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

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The central hall, with a sei whale skeleton

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
* Minerals, with an emphasis on the nitrate boom of the early twentieth century
* Insects, including large fossil dragonflies
* Mollusks
* Mesozoic era vertebrates, including a specimen of Carnotaurus sastrei
* Chilean timber
* Chilean archaeology
* Juan Fernández Islands
* Cultural anthropology, covering the Aymara, Mapuche, Selkʼnam, 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, 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 scans 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.[4][5]

A collection of molluscs 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 laboratory under tutelage of professor Nibaldo Bahamonde.[6]

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.[7]

## Departments and oversight

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

### Directors

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The Museum is supervised by the Director of the National Cultural Heritage Service,[8] itself a division of the Chilean Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage:[9]

* 1830: Frenchman Jean-François Dauxion-Lavaysse was the first director[1]
* 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.[10]

## References

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1. ^ a b Gainot, Bernard (2016). "Jean-François Dauxion-Lavaysse (circa 1770– circa 1830). From recognition of the land to social recognition". cairn-int.info. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
2. ^ Juan Davud Murillo Sandoval. "De Lo Natural Y lo Nacional. Representaciones de la Naturaleza Explotable en la Exposción Internacional de Chile de 1875". `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help)
3. ^ A flyer handed the museum.
4. ^ Fleitas, Giovanna (December 22, 2016). "Les momies les plus vieilles du monde passent un scanner au Chili" [The oldest mummies in the world pass a scan in Chile]. La Presse (in French). Montreal, Canada. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
5. ^ Timbert, Aline (May 4, 2017). "Chili : Les momies Chinchorro, les plus vielles au monde, passent au scanner pour révéler enfin quelques secrets…" [Chile: The Chinchorro mummies, the oldest in the world, are undergoing scanning to reveal some secrets ...]. Actu Latino (in French). Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
6. ^ Letelier, Sergio; et al. (2003). "Base de datos del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural: moluscos de Chile" (PDF). Rev. Biol. Trop. (in Spanish). 51 (Supplement 3): 33–50. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
7. ^ Long, Douglas (April 1993). "Late Miocene and Early Pliocene fish assemblages from the north central coast of Chile". Tertiary Research. 14 (3): 117–126. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
8. ^ "La Colección, Y. Nomencláator Basado En. "Museo Nacional de Historia Natural Chile Publicación Ocasional N 64/2015"" (PDF). La Colección (in Spanish). 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 19, 2017. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
9. ^ "dibam". Portal dibam (in Spanish). 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
10. ^ Grete Mostny, Memorial for the victims of National Socialism, University of Vienna, Retrieved 9 November 2015

## External links

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* A 360° panorama of the museum

33°26′32″S 70°40′55″W﻿ / ﻿33.44217°S 70.68184°W﻿ / -33.44217; -70.68184

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* Germany
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* BnF data
* Norway

Academics|

* CiNii

Artists|

* KulturNav

Other|

* IdRef
* Yale LUX