Orléans Museum for biodiversity and environment, Natural history museum in Orléans, France

The Muséum d'Orléans pour la biodiversité et l'environnement occupies a building on rue Marcel-Proust, completed in 1966, whose curved facade is wrapped in a grid of glass and white metal. Behind the glazing, several levels with white vertical railings are visible; at street level a black wall holds the entrances, poster panels and signs, with the words "MUSEUM", "D'ORLEANS", "A BIODIVERSITE" and "ENVIRONNEMENT" on the glass. The building stands on a street corner.

The museum opened in 1823 in the Hôtel des Créneaux, in Orléans city centre, as a natural history cabinet sharing the building with art and history collections. In 1944 Paul Sougy, a curator and agrégé teacher at the lycée Pothier, reorganised the displays by the functions of living things rather than by classification, and added the first vivariums and aquariums. A new building on rue Marcel-Proust was completed in 1966, and a large extension followed in the late 1980s. Closed from 2015 for renovation, it reopened on 19 May 2021.

The museum's name and approach come from curator Paul Sougy, who from 1944 arranged the collections by the functions of living things rather than by classification, and added the first vivariums and aquariums. He also held the museum's first temporary exhibitions in 1947. The building's glass facade carries the words "MUSEUM D'ORLEANS A BIODIVERSITE ENVIRONNEMENT".

The museum stands at the corner of rue Marcel-Proust, near the station district, in a building renovated from 2019 and reopened on 19 May 2021. New storage rooms keep collections at 16 to 20°C and 40 to 55% humidity. Allow time for the children's museum and educational workshop rooms.

The museum preserves the Herbarium of Auguste de Saint-Hilaire, a collection of about 1800 plant specimens from Brazil and European regions. This historical collection shows how 19th-century researchers documented plant diversity.