Chilean National Museum of Natural History
Chilean National Museum of Natural History, National museum in Santiago, Chile
The Chilean National Museum of Natural History is a nationwide natural history museum in Quinta Normal Park in Santiago that exhibits animals, plants, and rocks from the country. The building offers several large exhibition rooms spread across a ground floor and an upper floor, with access to an attached library.
The founding took place in 1830 driven by the new republic and its desire to catalog its own species. In the twentieth century the collection moved to the present building in the park, which previously served another purpose and was only later adapted for the exhibitions.
The institution carries the official name that links it to the nation's effort to document its own environment and living things. Schoolchildren and families walk through display halls filled with taxidermied animals, rocks, and fossils that help Chilean generations form their sense of the land.
The entrance is on Matucana street, which runs along the western side of the park and is easy to reach by public transport or on foot. Inside, display cases and corridors are mostly wide enough for groups and wheelchairs, though in older sections there are narrower passages or steps.
In a side wing researchers work on digitizing dried plants from the national herbarium, securing them for future generations. Through glass panels visitors sometimes see the equipment and tables where this quiet process takes place.
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