The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (National Museum of Natural History) was a museum on the Rapenburg in Leiden, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1820 by Royal Decree from a merger of several existing collections. This happened on the initiative of Coenraad Jacob Temminck, who saw the museum primarily as a research institute for the University of Leiden. The total collection was already quite large at the time, and continued to grow from foreign expeditions and by obtaining private collections from inheritances. The location is currently used by the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden.
History
The location was originally a hofje called Hof van Zessen. In 1815 plans were made to build a museum there (the first building called a "museum" in Leiden). It opened in 1820, and until 1913, the museum normally opened to the public on Sundays. In 1913, the museum moved to a new building, with very little room available for exhibits, and in 1950, this room was also closed. After that, there were a few opportunities for guided tours, attending lectures, and temporary exhibitions.
In 1976, a paper, "Towards a New Museum", was produced. This led to the museum taking on more of a central curating role, lending pieces from its collection to other museums. The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie and the Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie merged in 1984. A permanent public exhibition was still not present. That came in 1986, when the so-called "National Presentation" in the field of natural history was commissioned by the Dutch government. Planning began for a new building, which was completed in 1990 and launched in 1998 as "Naturalis".
Buildings and interior
Former Directors
Coenraad Jacob Temminck 1820 - 1858
Hermann Schlegel 1858 - 1884
Fredericus Anna Jentink 1884 - 1913
Eduard Daniel van Oort 1913 - 1933
Hilbrand Boschma 1933 - 1958
Leo Brongersma 1958 - 1972
Willem Vervoort 1972 - 1982
Jacobus Theodorus Wiebes 1982 - 1989
T. de Caluwé (?) 1989 - 1991
W. van der Weiden 1991 - 2003
Contributing scientists
Marinus Boeseman
Heinrich Boie
Johann Büttikofer
Rudolf van Eecke
Berend George Escher
Matthijs Freudenthal
Otto Finsch
Agatha Gijzen
Wilhem de Haan
James Edmund Harting
Koos den Hartog
Jan Adrianus Herklots
Lipke Holthuis
Johan Coenraad van Hasselt
George Junge
Heinrich Kuhl
Jacob van der Land
Heinrich Christian Macklot
Johannes Govertus de Man
Karl Martin
Gerlof Fokko Mees
Salomon Müller
Dirk Noordam
Coenraad Ritsema
Willem Roelofs
Adolph Cornelis van Bruggen
Jacobus van der Vecht
Samuel Constantinus Snellen van Vollenhoven
G. van der Zanden
Contributing artists
John Gerrard Keulemans
Marinus Adrianus Koekkoek the Younger
Joseph Smit
Joseph Wolf
Contributing to collections
Pieter Bleeker
Eugène Dubois
Curt Eisner
Oliver Erichson Janson
Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn
Thure Kumlien
Pierre Millière
Hendrik Pel
Walter Karl Johann Roepke
Hermann von Rosenberg
Gerard van Rossem
Philipp Franz von Siebold
Hermanus Gerardus Maria Teunissen
François Le Vaillant
Varia
Stephen Jay Gould depicts his visit to the Raamsteeg building in Dinosaur in a Haystack in his essay "Four Antelopes of the Apocalypse".