Joel A. Bartsch, president and CEO of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, is a nationally recognized museum leader and authority on gems, mineralogy, and natural history curation. Over a 30-year career that spans roles from curator to chief executive, he has expanded HMNS by more than 250,000 square feet, overseen collections of millions of specimens, and forged international partnerships with leading institutions across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Mr. Bartsch’s expertise in exhibit design, fundraising, and educational outreach uniquely positions him to highlight the premier natural history museums featured below.
Individuals can expand their knowledge and broaden their worldviews by visiting museums. Many types of museums exist, including natural history museums. Natural history focuses on studying natural environments and their various components, including fauna, flora, and how they interact in different environments. Anyone interested in natural history can visit several famous museums worldwide.
The Natural History Museum in London is one of the world’s best-known natural history museums. Established in 1881, it is the most visited and influential institution of its kind. A venerated scientific facility, the museum is lauded for its comprehensive collections and iconic design. It houses two large reconstructed skeletons.
Moreover, the Natural History Museum introduced its first major reconstruction, a 292-bone plaster-cast replica of a diplodocus, affectionately named Dippy, in 1905. The diplodocus remained the museum’s star attraction for over a century before going on tour in 2018. Fortunately for Natural History Museum patrons, Hope replaced Dippy, a blue whale measuring 82 feet long.
Dippy and Hope represent just a fraction of the museum’s offerings, which consist of approximately 80 million unique specimens. In addition to megafauna and minuscule insects, the museum features gems that stem from the start of the solar system. Few museums provide as comprehensive an exploration of the planet’s biological timeline. Notable collections include the Spirit Collection, which features discoveries from explorers such as Charles Darwin and Captain Cook, and the Human Evolution gallery, depicting humanity’s earliest ancestors.
In addition, the United Kingdom is home to the Tring Natural History Museum, a sister site to the Natural History Museum. Located in Hertfordshire, the facility grew from the private collection of Baron Walter Rothschild. The museum largely consists of animal collections, including skeletons of mammals, birds, fish, and insects and preserved nests, eggs, and skins. The collection at Tring consists of more than 4,000 unique species.
Next, the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris houses the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution. That said, France’s National History Museum provides arguably the most diverse collection of natural history exhibits, as the museum has more than one location. It has 13 facilities countrywide, including Parc Zoologique de Paris and the Arboretum de Versailles-Chèvreloup.
Jardin des Plantes is the largest facility and contains many of the museum’s finest collections and galleries. Taxidermic displays range from elephants to hippos, both of which are part of the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution. Constructed in a grand 19th-century hall, the massive gallery consists of colored glass ceilings, walkways, and balconies that display approximately 7,000 unique animals. Other skeletons include dinosaurs, narwhals, and a rhino that King Louis XV owned.
Additional European natural history museums include the National Museum of Ireland and the Museum of Natural History Vienna. The United States also houses natural history, such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, which features dinosaurs, including a titanosaur, an allosaurus, and a barosaurus. Other must-see natural history museums in the United States range from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.