Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis | |
Location in South Holland in the Netherlands | |
Established | 9 August 1820 |
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Location | Darwinweg 2 [1] Leiden, Netherlands |
Coordinates | 52°09′53″N4°28′24″E / 52.16472°N 4.47333°E |
Type | National museum Natural history museum Research center |
Collections | Zoology, botany, geology |
Collection size | 43 million objects [2] |
Visitors | 339,550 (2015) [3] |
Director | Edwin van Huis [4] |
Public transit access | Leiden Centraal/LUMC [1] |
Nearest parking | On site (paid) |
Website | www |
Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Dutch : Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. [5] [6] 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 42 million specimens, making it one of the largest natural history collections in the world. [7]
The beginnings of Naturalis go back to the creation of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (abbreviated RMNH, National Museum of Natural History) by royal decree on August 9, 1820. In 1878, the geological and mineralogical collections of the museum were split off into a separate museum, [8] 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. [9]
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. [10] Completed in 1998, it was opened on April 7, 1998, by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. [8] The new building costs were about €60 million, making it the second most expensive museum building in the Netherlands.[ citation needed ]
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). [11] [12] [13] The combined institute was formally opened as part of the ‘International Year of Biodiversity 2010’ by Education Minister Ronald Plasterk and Agriculture Minister Gerda Verburg. [14] [15]
In 2012 the name became the Naturalis Biodiversity Center. [7] Naturalis has partnered with ETI Bioinformatics in support of the Catalog of Life (CoL), and is working with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. [16] Funding is in place to support digitization of the massed collections. [11] [17] In 2015, further renovation and expansion was planned, with a proposed design from Neutelings Riedijk Architecten. The Pesthuis (historical Plague hospital) will no longer be part of the complex. [18] However, a lawsuit by the previous architect postponed these plans. The museum, except the research facilities, was closed from September 2018 to mid 2019 due to renovations. Temporary exhibitions were held in the Pesthuis, the former entrance building, during the renovations. [19] The new building was finished in the summer of 2019 with the museum opening again on August 31 of that year. [20]
Within a year of the opening the museum had to close again in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic until June 2020. The museum reopened on June 8 with free entrance for essential workers. [21] On July 1 the museum was reopened for the public charging full prices again. It closed again in the winters of 2020 and 2021 due to further national COVID-19 measures.
Naturalis was named the European Museum of the Year 2021 in the annual awards of the European Museum Forum. The jury cited Naturalis as "a very inventive museum with beautiful exhibitions", and also that the museum's "agile ability" to move on and transform itself. [5] [6]
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: [2] [11]
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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 center of Leiden.
The Index Herbariorum code assigned to Naturalis is L [22] and it is used when citing housed herbarium specimens.
Among the collections at Naturalis are the papers and field notes of a number of early travelers and naturalists, including the following:
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The museum has several permanent exhibitions: [23] [24]
During the renovation of the main building the former entrance building, the historic Pesthuis, was used for three temporary exhibits from 2016 to 2018.
During the COVID-19 pandemic the museum was made virtually accessible. The visitor can move freely through the exhibitions with information and short videos available in Dutch or English to add context to some of the museum's highlights.
Besides its role as a museum, Naturalls is also a scientific research institute collaborating with most Dutch universities. Around 120 researchers and 200 guest researchers are working at Naturalis in nine groups on topics such as biodiversity, botany, marine biology, or geology. [35] Naturalis is a (co-)initiator of several citizen science projects. [36] [37] [38] With the project Arise, which aims to map all biodiversity in the Netherlands, Naturalis is a player in one of the largest Dutch research infrastructure projects. [39]
Year | Visitors | Year | Visitors | |
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2008 | 245,275 [40] | 2012 | 251,500 [40] | |
2009 | 266,000 [40] | 2013 | 307,500 (est.) [41] | |
2010 | 270,000 [40] | 2014 | 300,000 (est.) [42] | |
2011 | 273,000 [40] | 2015 | 339,550 [3] |
Naturalis had an estimated 285,000 visitors and was the 15th most visited museum of the Netherlands in 2013. [43] The museum had a record number of 440,000 visitors in 2022 [44]
The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Concertgebouw.
Leiden is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 127,046, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with its suburbs Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten and Zoeterwoude with 215,602 inhabitants. The Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) further includes Katwijk in the agglomeration which makes the total population of the Leiden urban agglomeration 282,207 and in the larger Leiden urban area also Teylingen, Noordwijk, and Noordwijkerhout are included with in total 365,913 inhabitants. Leiden is located on the Oude Rijn, at a distance of some 20 km (12 mi) from The Hague to its south and some 40 km (25 mi) from Amsterdam to its north. The recreational area of the Kaag Lakes (Kagerplassen) lies just to the northeast of Leiden.
The Van Gogh Museum is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opened on 2 June 1973, and its buildings were designed by Gerrit Rietveld and Kisho Kurokawa.
Pieter Bleeker was a Dutch medical doctor, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He was famous for the Atlas Ichthyologique des Indes Orientales Néêrlandaises, his monumental work on the fishes of East Asia published between 1862 and 1877.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Belgica', one of a number of hybrids arising from the crossing of Wych Elm with a variety of Field Elm, was reputedly raised in the nurseries of the Abbey of the Dunes, Veurne, in 1694. Popular throughout Belgium and the Netherlands in the 19th century both as an ornamental and as a shelter-belt tree, it was the 'Hollandse iep' in these countries, as distinct from the tree known as 'Dutch Elm' in Great Britain and Ireland since the 17th century: Ulmus × hollandica 'Major'. In Francophone Belgium it was known as orme gras de Malines.
The Wereldmuseum Amsterdam is an ethnographic museum located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1864.
The National Herbarium of the Netherlands is one of largest herbaria in the world with some 5.5 million specimens. It was established in 1999 through a decentralized merger of the major university herbaria of Leiden, Utrecht and Wageningen. Each of the three had its own focus.
The Museum Card, also known as the Museumkaart in Dutch, is a personal card that grants free entry to approximately 400 museums in the Netherlands for one year. It is available for purchase at many of the larger participating museums or online, with a temporary card issued when purchased from the museum. While most museums offer free entry to Museum Card holders, some museums may charge an additional fee for special exhibitions, but not for general collections.
Tyrannosaurus is one of the most iconic dinosaurs and is known from numerous specimens, some of which have individually acquired notability due to their scientific significance and media coverage.
Michiel Riedijk is a Dutch architect and professor at the Technical University Delft. He is co-founder of the architecture office Neutelings Riedijk Architects in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The Zoological Museum Amsterdam (ZMA) was a natural history museum located close to Oosterpark in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was part of the Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Computer Science (Science) of the University of Amsterdam.
Ethnographic Museum Artis was an ethnographic museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was situated at the Artis zoo.
Pieter Baas is a Dutch botanist and an emeritus professor of plant systematics at the Leiden University, who served as director of the Rijksherbarium of Leiden University between 1991 and 1999. When the institute was faced with budget cuts in 1993 he managed to preserve the collection by joining it with the university collections of Wageningen and Utrecht. This led to the founding of the National Herbarium of the Netherlands in 1999. Baas subsequently became director of the institute and served until 2005. As a botanist, Baas specializes in wood anatomy, and is an elected fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science.
Trix is a Tyrannosaurus rex specimen excavated in 2013 in Montana, United States by a team of paleontologists from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands and Black Hills institute of Geological Research in South Dakota. This Tyrannosaurus, over thirty years old – the oldest known Tyrannosaurus specimen – lived about 67 million years ago. It is considered to be the third most complete Tyrannosaurus found, with between 78% and 80% of its bone volume recovered. The specimen was named Trix after the former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. It is one of only two Tyrannosaurus specimens on permanent exhibit in mainland Europe. The other one is a specimen named Tristan on exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Berlin.
Jan Gaykema Jacobsz. was a Dutch painter, draughtsman and botanical illustrator.
Christa Laetitia Deeleman-Reinhold is a Dutch arachnologist. She specializes in spiders from Southeast Asia and Southern Europe, particularly cave-dwelling and tropical spiders. She donated a collection of about 25,000 Southeast Asian spiders, the largest collection of Southeast Asian spiders in existence, to the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden. In addition to numerous articles, she has written the book Forest Spiders of South East Asia (2001).
De Reinwardt Academie is a Dutch institution for higher vocational education in the Netherlands, which offers bachelor's and master's degrees in Cultural heritage.
Daan Remmerts de Vries is a Dutch writer and illustrator.
ARISE is a Dutch scientific research program that aims to completely map biodiversity in the European territory of the Netherlands. In addition, the goal is to set up semi-automatic infrastructure that can identify species using image and sound recognition technology, radar data, and environmental DNA (eDNA).