Chilean National Museum of Natural History

The Chilean National Museum of Natural History (Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, MNHN) is one of three national museums in Chile, alongside the Museum of Fine Arts and the National History Museum. Located in Quinta Normal Park in the western sector of Santiago, it was founded on September 14, 1830 by the French naturalist Claudio Gay, making it the first museum established in Chile and one of the oldest natural history museums in South America. It is also the most visited museum in the country, popularly known as the "museo de la ballena" (whale museum) for the prominent whale skeleton displayed in its central hall. The museum's mission is to generate knowledge and appreciation of Chile's natural and cultural heritage through memorable experiences.

The origins of the museum date to 1813, when a document published in El Monitor Araucano proposed establishing a natural history museum within the Real Universidad de San Felipe. On May 22, 1822, Bernardo O'Higgins appointed Frenchman Jean-François Dauxion-Lavaysse as director of the institution-to-be, but Dauxion-Lavaysse died in 1829 without fulfilling his mandate. The museum was formally founded on September 14, 1830 by Claudio Gay, who had arrived in Chile in December 1828 and was commissioned by the government to study the country's geography and biological diversity. The museum initially operated from a room in the National Library building on Calle Catedral. In 1853, German naturalist Rodulfo A. Philippi became director, expanding collections and adding an exhibition space for Oceanian artifacts, including pieces from Easter Island. His son Federico Philippi succeeded him in 1897, and in 1908 launched the museum's bulletin, still published today. The current building was occupied in 1876. Earthquakes in August 1906 and April 1927 caused significant damage, with the 1927 quake destroying much of the structure; repairs lasted until 1931. Ricardo Latcham directed the museum from 1928 to 1943, followed by Enrique Gigoux (1943-1948) and Humberto Fuenzalida (1949-1963), whose tenure saw expansion including a malacology laboratory. Grete Mostny, the first woman to lead the museum, directed it from 1964 to 1982, founding the Juventudes Científicas de Chile in 1967 and the Centro Nacional de Museología in 1968. The February 27, 2010 earthquake forced closure until May 18, 2012, when the museum reopened with a renewed exhibition concept; since then only the first floor has been fully operational while the second floor awaits repairs.

The museum maintains one of the most extensive scientific collections in Chile, encompassing archaeology, anthropology, zoology, botany, geology, and paleontology. Its five scientific departments are botany, zoology, entomology, anthropology, and paleontology. The botany department includes a herbarium of 3,700 species dating from 1830, housing 90% of the type specimens of Chilean species. The zoology department contains fourteen holotypes, mainly of Chilean marine and freshwater fish. The entomology department maintains national collections of Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera. The anthropology department covers the archaeology of Central Chile through the Inca Empire and cultural artifacts of modern or recently extinct peoples. The paleontology department includes sections for fossil invertebrates, fossil vertebrates, and paleobotany. The museum follows standardized conservation, documentation, and storage procedures, with controlled-environment storage for archaeological materials and formal protocols for labeling using Paraloid B-72 and India ink, packaging in transparent polyethylene bags with Tyvek labels, and stratigraphic coding systems.

The museum's twelve permanent exhibits include several signature holdings. The central hall features a 17-meter skeleton of Balaenoptera borealis (sei whale), nicknamed "Greta" in honor of former director Grete Mostny. The Biogeography of Chile exhibition, a long tunnel occupying much of the first floor, presents an ecological vision of the country from the origin of the universe through its diverse biogeographic environments. The museum holds the oldest known mummies in the world, approximately 7,400 years old, preserved by the Chinchorro people, predating Egyptian mummies by 2,000 years; fifteen of these mummies were subjected to CAT scans in late 2016 to study their preservation techniques. The museum also houses the finest public collection of rongorongo artifacts in the world, from Easter Island (Rapa Nui). Other notable collections include a mollusc collection assembled since the earliest study of Chilean natural history, with specimens collected by Juan I. Molina in 1782 and expanded through donations and exchanges by director Philippi until 1897; marine fossils from the late Miocene and early Pliocene quarried from north-central Chile in the early 1990s; a Carnotaurus sastrei specimen among Mesozoic vertebrates; and a copper collection from Codelco, the state mining corporation, emphasizing the nitrate boom of the early twentieth century. The cultural anthropology section covers the Aymara, Mapuche, Selk'nam, Rapanui, Kawésqar, and Yámana peoples.

The museum occupies a neoclassical building in Quinta Normal Park, constructed between 1873 and 1875 by French architect Paul Lathoud, who also designed the Cousiño Palace. The building was originally erected as a palace or pavilion for the Chilean International Exhibition of 1875, and the museum moved to this location on January 15, 1876. The structure covers 12,000 square meters and was declared a National Monument in 1991. The park setting originally included several gardens with endemic and foreign flora, and an adjacent botanical garden was developed under Rodulfo A. Philippi's direction. The building has suffered repeated earthquake damage throughout its history, notably in 1906, 1927, and most severely in 2010. The 2010 damage was so extensive that the museum remained closed for over two years, and subsequent repairs have been partial, with the second floor still awaiting restoration.

The Chilean National Museum of Natural History is located in Quinta Normal Park in the western sector of Santiago, accessible via Metro Line 5 to Quinta Normal station and by multiple bus routes. Admission has been free for both Chileans and foreigners since 2015. The museum is supervised by the Director of the National Cultural Heritage Service, a division of the Chilean Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage. Current director is Mario Castro. Opening hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 to 17:30, and Sundays and holidays from 11:00 to 17:30; Mondays are closed, including holiday Mondays. The museum is also closed on January 1, May 1, September 18-19, and December 25. Visitor numbers have been substantial, with 844,134 recorded in 2019, though figures fluctuated following the 2010 earthquake and reopening. The museum offers guided tours, educational programs for school groups, and the Abate Molina Scientific Library, though the library is currently closed with bibliographic queries handled by email. The museum's website is www.mnhn.cl. The building's historical architecture presents some accessibility challenges, and visitors should note that English translations may be limited for some exhibits.