Museum of Natural History, Lima

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The Natural History Museum (Museo de Historia Natural) in Lima, is Peru's most important museum of natural history. It was established in 1918 and belongs to the National University of San Marcos.

History

The museum was founded in 1918 by the Faculty of Sciences of the

The initial personal of the museum consisted in one curator in chief, and three curators for the areas of Zoology, Botany and Mineralogy.

The first scientific expedition was organized by Rospigliosi in April 1918, that collected specimens of

In 1920, the rector of the National University of San Marcos, Dr. Javier Prado, interceded in order to acquire the collections of Antonio Raimondi for the recently created museum. These samples included zoological, botanical and mineralogical specimens.

The building

Originally, the museum was located at the Faculty of

The museum is repository of representative specimens of Peruvian fauna, flora and minerals, including exhibitions of mammals, primates, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, birds, plants, fossils, dinosaurs, fish and minerals.

Highlights of the collections include:

• Skeletons of a sperm whale
• Fossils of South American horses
• Fossils of giant ground sloths

Publications

The first publication series was the Boletín del Museo de Historia Natural in 1937 aimed to divulge institutional activities and results of scientific research. The Publicaciones del Museo series in Zoology, Botany and Geology were published from 1948, the Memorias del Museo in 1951 and the Serie de Divulgación in 1964.

References

External links

• Official website of the Natural History Museum (in Spanish)