National Museum of Natural History, France facts for kids

The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (or MNHN), is France's national museum for natural history. It's also a special higher education center that's part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with its four amazing galleries, is in Paris, France. You can find it inside the beautiful Jardin des Plantes on the left bank of the River Seine.

The museum officially started in 1793, during the French Revolution. But its story began much earlier, in 1635, as the king's garden for medicinal plants. Today, the museum has 14 different locations all over France!

Since 2014, a chairman leads the museum, helped by deputy directors. About 2,350 people work there, including 600 researchers. It's also part of a national network that connects natural history collections across the country.

Quick facts for kids
French National Museum of Natural History

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
Grand Gallery of Evolution of the National Museum of Natural History
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Established	June 10, 1793; 232 years ago (1793-06-10)
Location	57 Rue Cuvier, Paris, France
Type	Natural history museum
Collection size	67 million specimens
Visitors	3.8 million in 2023
Public transit access	Jussieu Place Monge Austerlitz
Muséum national d'histoire naturelle network
Muséum national d'histoire naturelle Jardin des Plantes Musée de l'Homme Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes Brunoy Ecology Research Centre Chèvreloup Arboretum Jardin botanique exotique de Menton Marinarium Concarneau Marine Biology Station Paris Zoological Park (Vincennes Zoo) Cleres Zoological Park Research and Education Centre on Coastal Systems Haute Touche Zoological Park Jaysinia Alpine Garden Abri Pataud Prehistoric Museum L’Harmas de Fabre

A Look Back: The Museum's History

Starting Small: 17th and 18th Centuries

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  The Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants in 1636

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  Statue of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in the formal garden

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  Buffon's "Natural History" (1763)

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  The museum's seal, designed in 1793, showing nature, teamwork, and the French Revolution.

The museum officially opened on June 10, 1793. This happened during the French Revolution, at the same time the famous Louvre Museum was created. But its roots go back much further!

It began as the Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants, started by King Louis XIII in 1635. Royal doctors managed this garden. In 1718, King Louis XV decided the garden should be more than just for medicine. It started offering public lessons on plants, chemistry, and how different animals are built.

In 1729, a building in the garden became the cabinet of natural history. This is where the king's collections of animals and minerals were kept. Greenhouses were also built to study plants and animals brought back by French explorers.

From 1739 to 1788, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon led the garden. He was a very important naturalist during the Enlightenment. Even though he didn't travel much himself, he wrote a huge and famous book called "Natural History." It had 36 volumes, published between 1749 and 1788.

In his books, Buffon suggested that Earth was much older than people thought, about 75,000 years old! He also helped fund a lot of research. You can see his statue proudly standing in front of the Gallery of Evolution today.

After the French Revolution, the museum was reorganized. It had twelve professors, all with equal importance. Some early professors included Georges Cuvier, who studied animal anatomy, and Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who were pioneers in the idea of evolution. The museum's goals were to teach people, build collections, and do scientific research.

Scientists from the museum went on expeditions worldwide. For example, Déodat de Dolomieu gave his name to the mineral dolomite. And botanist René Louiche Desfontaines spent two years collecting plants in Tunisia and Algeria. His book "Flora Atlantica" added 300 new plant groups to science!

When Napoleon Bonaparte went to Egypt in 1798, he brought over 154 scientists with him. They collected many specimens and drawings, which greatly added to the museum's collections.

Growing Bigger: The 19th Century

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  Plan of the Jardin des Plantes and its buildings in 1820

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  The photographic plate of Henri Becquerel, showing the first evidence of radioactivity (1896)

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  Crowd outside the Palace of the Apes (c. 1900) in the Jardin des Plantes

The museum kept growing in the 19th century. Michel Eugène Chevreul, a chemist, was a key figure. His work on animal fats changed how soap and candles were made. He also discovered that people with diabetes have sugar in their urine. His ideas about color even influenced famous painters!

Henri Becquerel worked at the museum from 1892 to 1908. He made a huge discovery: he showed that uranium gives off radiation naturally. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for this discovery. Four generations of the Becquerel family held this important position at the museum!

As more collections arrived, the museum expanded. A new gallery for zoology opened in 1889. Then, a new gallery for paleontology and comparative anatomy opened in 1898.

Modern Times: 20th and 21st Centuries

After getting more financial freedom in 1907, the museum started a new period of growth. In 1934, it opened the Paris Zoological Park, a new zoo in the Bois de Vincennes. This became home to the larger animals from the old Menagerie in the Jardin des Plantes.

In 1937, the museum opened the Musée de l'Homme, a museum about people and their history. It's located in the Palais de Chaillot, across from the Eiffel Tower. In recent years, the museum has focused its research on how humans affect the environment.

Some of the museum buildings, like the Grand Gallery of Evolution (finished in 1889), became quite old. It closed in 1965 for safety. But it got a huge makeover between 1991 and 1994 and looks amazing today!

Exploring the Museum: Galleries and Gardens

The museum started in the Jardin des Plantes, and many of its collections are still there. You can find five main galleries: the Gallery of Evolution, the Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology, the Gallery of Botany, the Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy, and the Laboratory of Entomology.

The Grand Gallery of Evolution

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  Garden facade of the Grand Gallery of Evolution

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  Interior of the Grand Gallery of Evolution

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  Parade of African mammals

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  A stuffed bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus)

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  A plastified giant squid, nine meters long, in the Gallery of Evolution

Some people call the National Museum of Natural History "the Louvre of the Natural Sciences." Its biggest and most famous part is the Grand Gallery of Evolution. It stands at the end of the main path, facing the beautiful formal garden.

This gallery replaced an older one built in 1785. The new building was started in 1877 by architect Louis-Jules André. It's a great example of Beaux Arts Architecture. It opened in 1889 for the Paris Universal Exposition, which also showed off the Eiffel Tower for the first time!

The outside of the building was designed to look good with the garden. It has statues honoring famous French scientists. Inside, the iron structure was very modern for the 19th century. It had a huge hall, 55 meters long and 15 meters high, with a glass roof.

The building had some problems and closed in 1965. But after a big renovation from 1991 to 1994, it reopened in its current amazing form. The main hall now shows marine animals on the sides. In the center, there's a parade of full-size African mammals, including a rhinoceros given to King Louis XV way back in the 1700s! Another hall shows animals that have disappeared or are in danger.

Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology

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  Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology

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  Examples of malachite and azurite, donated by J.P. Morgan in 1903

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  Native gold and quartz from California

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  Quartz from Uruguay

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  Amethyst from Siberia

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  Fragment of the Canyon Diablo Meteorite which created Meteor Crater in Arizona

The Gallery of Mineralogy is across the formal garden from the Gallery of Evolution. It was built between 1833 and 1837 in a classical style. In front of it is a rose garden with 170 types of European roses. There's also a Japanese pagoda tree planted by Bernard de Jussieu in 1747!

This gallery holds over 600,000 stones and fossils. It's famous for its collection of giant crystals, like colorful azurite, Tourmaline (Rubelite), Malachite, and Ammonite. You can also see jars from King Louis XIV's original royal pharmacy.

The gallery has a large collection of meteorites from all over the world. This includes a huge piece of the Canyon Diablo meteorite. This piece of an asteroid fell in Arizona about 550,000 years ago, creating the famous Meteor crater. The fragment weighs 360 kilograms (about 970 pounds)!

Gallery of Botany

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  The Gallery of Botany. At left is the Robinia pseudoacacia, one of the oldest two trees in Paris, planted in 1635 by Vespasien Robin

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  Slice of a giant Sequoia tree in the Gallery of Botany

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  Specimen of Nepenthes mirabilis, (tropical pitcher plant) from Southeast Asia, one of 7.5 million plants in the Herbier National

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  "Coffea guianensis", Coffee plant from Guyana, collected by Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet in 1775

The Gallery of Botany is between the Mineralogy and Paleontology galleries. At its corner, you can see one of the two oldest trees in Paris: a black locust tree. It was planted in 1635 by Vespasien Robin, the royal gardener.

The gallery itself was built between 1930 and 1935. In front, there's a statue called "Science and Mystery." It shows an old man thinking about an egg and a chicken, wondering which came first!

The main part of this gallery is the Herbier National. This is a collection of 7.5 million plant specimens gathered since the museum began. Many were collected by Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet, a royal botanist who explored French Guiana. In 1775, he published a book describing over 400 new plant species!

Inside, the ground floor has cool Art Deco and Neo-Egyptian designs. It's used for temporary exhibits. You can also see a slice of a giant Sequoia tree that is 2,200 years old! It fell naturally in 1917.

The Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy

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  Facade of the Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy

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  Relief sculpture and ironwork on the entrance of the gallery

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  Dinosaur gallery

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  Skull cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex

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  Skeleton of an Aepyornis, or Elephant Bird

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  Jaw of a Cynthiacetus, an early whale, from Peru

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  Skeleton of a Southern Mammoth

The Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy was built between 1894 and 1897 by architect Ferdinand Dutert. He also designed the amazing iron-framed Galerie des machines for the 1889 Paris Exposition.

In front of the gallery is the Iris Garden, created in 1964, with 260 kinds of iris flowers. The gallery's sides are decorated with sculptures of animals and medallions of famous biologists. The entrance has detailed ironwork and stone arches with seashell designs. Inside, there's a large marble statue of an Orangutan made in 1885 by the famous animal sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet.

Jardin des Plantes

The Jardin des plantes is where the main museum galleries are located. It's a huge part of the museum itself! The garden was started by Louis XIII in 1635 as the Royal Garden of medicinal plants.

In the early 1700s, a building in the garden became the Cabinet of Natural History. It held the king's collections of animals and minerals. New plants and animals from around the world were brought here, studied, and described in books. In 1787, an amphitheater was built for lectures. New greenhouses were added, and the garden doubled in size.

Scientists like Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who developed early ideas about evolution, worked in these gardens. Many major scientific expeditions in the 18th and 19th centuries started from here.

Today, the gardens have a large formal garden with geometric designs. There are also two huge greenhouses that keep tropical plants at a warm 22 degrees Celsius. The Alpine gardens show plants from places like Corsica, the Caucasus, and the Himalayas. The School of Botany gardens display 3,800 types of plants, organized by their groups.

Ménagerie of the Jardin des Plantes

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  The Rotunda of the Menagerie

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  Pink flamingoes in the Menagerie

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  Enclosure for Mongooses

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  Amur leopards

The Menagerie is the second-oldest public zoo in the world that's still open! It started between 1798 and 1836. It became home to animals from the royal zoo at Versailles, which were left without care after the French Revolution.

The zoo covers five hectares (about 13.6 acres). It has charming "fabriques," or pavilions, mostly built in the 19th century, to house the animals. In the 20th century, larger animals moved to the Paris Zoological Park, a bigger zoo also run by the museum.

Today, the Menagerie is home to about 600 mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, representing about 189 species. This includes the Amur leopard from China, which is one of the rarest cats on Earth!

What the Museum Does

The museum has two main goals: to do scientific research (both basic and applied) and to share knowledge with the public. It has seven research departments and three public departments.

The research departments study things like:

• How living things are classified and how they change over time (Evolution)
• How bodies work at a tiny level (Molecular Diversity)
• Animals and plants in water (Aquatic Environments)
• How living things interact with their surroundings (Ecology and Biodiversity)
• The story of our planet (History of Earth)
• How humans, nature, and societies connect
• Very old human history (Prehistory)

The public departments are:

• The Galleries in the Jardin des Plantes
• Botanical Parks and Zoos
• The Museum of Man (Musée de l'Homme)

The museum also offers higher education, including a master's degree.

Main façade of the Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy.

Locations and Other Sites

The museum has fourteen sites across France! Four of them are in Paris, including the Jardin des Plantes in the 5th district. You can get there by métro to Place Monge.

The museum's herbarium (a collection of dried plants) has 8 million plant specimens! It includes important historical collections from famous botanists like Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and René Louiche Desfontaines.

The Musée de l'Homme is also in Paris, in the 16th district (métro Trocadéro). It shows exhibits on human cultures and physical anthropology, including ancient tools, fossils, and other objects.

Allée of palms in the Jardin botanique exotique de Menton

Other parts of the museum include:

• Three zoos: the Paris Zoological Park (also known as the Zoo de Vincennes), the Cleres Zoological Park, and the Réserve de la Haute Touche (the largest in France).
• Three botanical parks: the Arboretum de Chèvreloup near the Château de Versailles, the Jardin botanique exotique de Menton, and the Jardin alpin de La Jaÿsinia in the Alps.
• Two museums: the Musée de l'abri Pataud (a prehistoric site) and the Harmas de Fabre (the home of a famous entomologist).
• Four scientific sites for research on topics like human paleontology, ecology, and coastal systems.

Important Scientists (Chairs)

Dreamlike paintings of Henri "Douanier" Rousseau were inspired by visits to the Jardin des Plantes

When the Royal Garden became a national museum, twelve special teaching positions, called "Chairs," were created. Over time, these positions changed, with some being split and others removed. Many famous scientists in natural history held these Chairs. Early ones included Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, René Louiche Desfontaines, and Georges Cuvier.

Museum Leaders (Directors and Presidents)

Alphonse Milne-Edwards, director of the museum at the end of the 19th century.

Here are some of the people who led the museum over the years:

Friends of the Museum

The Friends of the Natural History Museum Paris is a private group that helps the museum financially. They support the museum, its branches, and the Jardin des Plantes. If you're a member, you get free entry to all the museum's galleries and the botanical garden! The Friends have helped the museum buy many items for its collections and supported its scientific and building projects over the years.

Images for kids

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  A) The cetaceum (podium of cetaceans), in the Comparative Anatomy gallery

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  B) Statue of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, with Paul and Virginia

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  C) The alpine garden

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  D) The Hôtel de Magny

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  E) The gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy, with the statue of the First Artist by Paul Richer

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  F) The Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology

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  G) The greenhouse of New Caledonia built between 1834 and 1836 (at the time the "oriental pavilion") according to the plans of Charles Rohault de Fleury

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  I) The Becquerel alley, north side, leads to Cuvier's house where Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896

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  J) The Paleontology gallery, on the second floor, with its mezzanine. The second floor exhibits the vertebrate fossils and the mezzanine the invertebrate fossils

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  K) One of the zoological shelters of the menagerie

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  L) The façade of the Musée de l'Homme, in the southwest wing of the Palais de Chaillot

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  M) The botanical museum of La Jaÿsinia, in the Alps

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  N) The excavations of the Pataud shelter, in Dordogne

See also

In Spanish: Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Francia para niños

• List of museums in Paris
• List of tourist attractions in Paris