![]() | |
![]() The museum under construction in 2016. | |
Location within Tel Aviv | |
Established | 2018 |
---|---|
Location | Tel Aviv |
Coordinates | 32°06′49″N34°48′27″E / 32.113701°N 34.807448°E Coordinates: 32°06′49″N34°48′27″E / 32.113701°N 34.807448°E |
Type | Natural history museum |
Collection size | 5.5 million items |
Founder | Tel Aviv University |
Executive director | Alon Sapan |
Curator | Tamar Dayan |
Architect | Kimmel Eshkolot Architects |
Website | smnh |
The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Israel National Center for Biodiversity Studies at Tel Aviv University, is a natural history museum in Israel, including both education and a research center. It is the largest and most active center in Israel of documentation and science, focusing on biodiversity research and its varied applications including nature conservation, environmental protection, and agriculture. [1] [2] [3]
The museum is set for the discovery, collections development and care, and scientific categorization of millions of specimens, documenting the flora and fauna in the area, as well as the history of humankind and its interactions with the environment. It provides access to its scientific treasures and accumulated knowledge to the public and the scientific and professional community. [2] [3]
The Museum’s collections holding some 5.5 million items accumulated by many scientists from Tel Aviv University and other institutions, find their new home at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. [1] [4] [2] [5]
The collections document the flora and fauna of Israel and the Middle East for thousands of years, as well as human development and the history of humankind. The museum building is located in the east of Tel Aviv University campus, across the Diaspora Museum gate, adjacent to the Botanic Gardens [3] and the I. Meier Segals Garden for Zoological Research. The construction of the museum building was made possible following the support of Michael Steinhardt, [1] [4] [5] [3] former Chairman of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University, and his wife, Judy, [6] as well as donations from other foundations and individuals (Yad Hanadiv, Dan David Foundation, Arison Foundation, KKL-JNF, Millie Phillips, Colette Kerber, and Haim Filler, as well as government assistance provided by the Planning and Grants Committee of the Council of Higher Education, the Ministries of Environmental Protection; Agriculture and Rural Development; Tourism; Science & Technology. [3] [7] [8] The museum's collections operate under the auspices of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and with the support of the Planning and Grants Committee of the Council of Higher Education. [3] Designed by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects. The museum opened to the public July 2018. [9]
The 9620 sq m five story museum building was designed as a "Treasure Box" or "Noah's Ark" [10] Thousands of items from the collections, used primarily for research, presented to the public, as part of exhibitions at the museum. Exhibition spaces comprise over 1,700 square meters [4] [3] in nine themed exhibitions: bird migration; Israel's diversity of ecosystems; bugs and beyond; life in dark; (animal) shape, structure and functions; human impacts on the environment; the web of life; the collections treasure. The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History is chaired by Prof. Tamar Dayan [2] [3] (of the School of Zoology at Tel Aviv University). Alon Sapan is the Museum’s director. [4]
The museum's collections are used for basic and applied research, for teaching and training, and for exhibitions to open to the public. [3] The Zoological Museum (Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences), the National Herbarium of algae, fungi, and lichen (Department of Molecular Biology and Ecology of Plants, Faculty of Life Sciences), National Anthropological Collections (Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine), and the collections and laboratories of biological archeology (Institute of Archeology, Faculty Humanities) have joined forces to establish the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Israel National Center for Biodiversity Studies. [11] [12]
The Museum maintains millions of specimens that record the fauna and flora of the region over the past century, as well as the development and history of humankind. The collections are an extremely active National Research Infrastructure that is used by over 500 scientists, [2] graduate students, and professionals from Israel and the world every year. [3] The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities recognized the collections as national collections, a national museum of natural history in the making, [13] while the National Council for Research & Development recognizes them as a National Research Infrastructure. [13] The Ministry of Science & Technology recognizes the museum as a Knowledge center in agricultural and the environment. [14]
The Israel Taxonomy Initiative (ITI), [15] a project supported by the higher education system of Israel, government ministries and agencies, and various research institutions, functions within The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. Its main activities aim to revive the field of taxonomy, to train of taxonomists, and to deepen the knowledge of the biodiversity of Israel. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to contribute to the study, conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems in Israel. [15]
The museum integrates and absorbs the educational activities previously conducted within "Campus-Teva" at Tel Aviv University. [16] [12] [17]
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum maintains its status as a premier natural-history museum through the size and quality of its educational and scientific programs, as well as due to its extensive scientific-specimen and artifact collections. The diverse, high-quality permanent exhibitions, which attract up to two million visitors annually, range from the earliest fossils to past and current cultures from around the world to interactive programming demonstrating today's urgent conservation needs. The museum is named in honor of its first major benefactor, the department-store magnate Marshall Field. The museum and its collections originated from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the artifacts displayed at the fair.
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre concentration of educational, cultural and medical institutions. The museum was established in 1920 by Cyrus S. Eaton to perform research, education and development of collections in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, botany, geology, paleontology, wildlife biology, and zoology. The museum traces its roots to the Ark, formed in 1836 on Cleveland's Public Square by William Case, the Academy of Natural Science formed by William Case and Jared Potter Kirtland, and the Kirtland Society of Natural History, founded in 1869 and reinvigorated in 1922 by the trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural-history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The Natural History Museum is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major museums in Germany alongside Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt and Museum Koenig in Bonn.
The Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi is a Brazilian research institution and museum located in the city of Belém, state of Pará. It was founded in 1866 by Domingos Soares Ferreira Penna as the Pará Museum of Natural History and Ethnography, and was later named in honor of Swiss naturalist Émil August Goeldi, who reorganized the institution and was its director from 1894 to 1905. It is open to the public from 9:00 to 17:00 h, daily except Mondays.
Naturalis Biodiversity Center is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. The museum, except the research facilities, was closed from September 2018 to mid 2019 due to renovations. Temporary exhibitions were held in the Pesthuis entrance building during the renovations.
The National Museum of Ireland – Natural History, sometimes called the Dead Zoo, a branch of the National Museum of Ireland, is housed on Merrion Street in Dublin, Ireland. The museum was built in 1856 for parts of the collection of the Royal Dublin Society and the building and collection were later passed to the State.
The Natural History Museum in Lima, is Peru's most important museum of natural history. It was established in 1918 and belongs to the National University of San Marcos.
The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol. The museum houses art, artifacts, and ecofacts that reflect New York’s cultural, natural, and geological development. Operated by the New York State Education Department's Office of Cultural Education, it is the nation's oldest and largest state museum. Formerly located in the State Education Building, the museum now occupies the first four floors of the Cultural Education Center, a ten-story, 1,500,000-square-foot (140,000 m2) building that also houses the New York State Archives and New York State Library.
The Museum of Comparative Zoology, full name "The Louis Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology", often abbreviated simply to "MCZ", is the zoology museum located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three natural history research museums at Harvard whose public face is the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Harvard MCZ's collections consist of some 21 million specimens, of which several thousand are on rotating display at the public museum. The current director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology is James Hanken, the Louis Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University.
Istanbul Zoology Museum, more precisely Zoology Museum of Istanbul University is a natural history museum, located in Istanbul University's Vezneciler Campus at Fatih, Istanbul featuring animal collections. It was founded in 1933 and rearranged in 1989. The museum is owned and maintained by the Department of Biology at Faculty of Science.
The San Diego Natural History Museum is a museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History. It is the second oldest scientific institution west of the Mississippi and the oldest in Southern California. The present location of the museum was dedicated on January 14, 1933. A major addition to the museum was dedicated in April 2001, doubling exhibit space.
Dan David was a Romanian-born Israeli businessman and philanthropist.
The Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, dating back to 1802, houses the largest natural history collections of Hungary and the region.
The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano is a museum in Milan, Italy. It was founded in 1838 when naturalist Giuseppe de Cristoforis donated his collections to the city. Its first director was Giorgio Jan.
The Kunming Natural History Museum of Zoology (昆明动物博物馆) is located on the campus of Kunming Institute of Zoology, Jiaochang East Road, Kunming, Yunnan, China. The museum is an important project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Knowledge Innovation Program, and a joint project of the academy and Yunnan Provincial Government.
The Copenhagen Zoological Museum is a part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, which is affiliated with the University of Copenhagen.
A zoological specimen is an animal or part of an animal preserved for scientific use. Various uses are: to verify the identity of a (species), to allow study, increase public knowledge of zoology. Zoological specimens are extremely diverse. Examples are bird and mammal study skins, mounted specimens, skeletal material, casts, pinned insects, dried material, animals preserved in liquid preservatives, and microscope slides. Natural history museums are repositories of zoological specimens
The conservation of taxidermy is the ongoing maintenance and preservation of zoological specimens that have been mounted or stuffed for display and study. Taxidermy specimens contain a variety of organic materials, such as fur, bone, feathers, skin, and wood, as well as inorganic materials, such as burlap, glass, and foam. Due to their composite nature, taxidermy specimens require special care and conservation treatments for the different materials.
The Natural Science Museum of Valencia (Spain) is located at Jardines del Real.