Natural History Museum Vienna: Collections of Natural Wonders

The earliest collections of the Natural History Museum Vienna date back over 250 years, initiated in 1750 when Holy Roman Emperor Francis I purchased the world's largest collection of natural history objects from scholar Jean de Baillou, marking the first step in creating the museum.

After Emperor Francis I's death, Maria Theresa transferred the natural science collection to the state and opened it to the public, establishing the first museum in line with Enlightenment principles and visions.

Mineralogist Ignaz von Born was tasked with classifying and expanding the collections, leading to minerals from many different regions being sent to Vienna and added to the museum's holdings, transforming it into a center of practical research.

In 1755, Emperor Francis I commissioned Nicolaus Joseph Jacquin to travel to the Caribbean, Antilles, Venezuela, and Colombia, returning with many live animals and plants, as well as 67 cases of natural world items.

To mark a royal marriage, Emperor Francis II sponsored a scientific expedition to Brazil in 1817, which lasted 18 years and aimed to collect and bring back all plants, animals, and minerals of scientific interest to Vienna.

Between 1857 and 1859, the SMS Novara sailed the globe on an ambitious expedition, with scientists collecting a vast haul of minerals, animals, plants, and items of ethnological interest for the museum.

The Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition (1872–1874), which discovered Franz Joseph Land, resulted in scientists returning to Vienna with invaluable travel journals, observations, and a number of natural history items of interest.

Construction for the new Imperial Natural History Museum, commissioned by Emperor Franz Joseph I and designed by Gottfried Semper and Carl Hasenauer, began in the fall of 1871.

The Imperial Natural History Museum (K.k. Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum), created during an extensive reorganization, was opened to the public on August 10, 1889, by Emperor Franz Joseph I.

The Natural History Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts were commissioned by Emperor Franz Joseph I and designed by architects Gottfried Semper and Carl Hasenauer, featuring identical exteriors and facing each other.

The Natural History Museum, built in the popular 19th-century historicism style, with elements from the Renaissance, saw its facade finished in 1881 and construction completed later.

The museum's roof is crowned with a 65-meter dome bearing a large bronze statue of the Greek sun god Helios, symbolizing the life-giving element essential for nature.

The grand staircase features Hans Canon's ceiling fresco, 'The Circle of Life,' a dramatic allegory of humanity's rise and decline, reflecting the scientific thought of the time and the dominance of nature.

In 1889, the museum purchased the extensive collection of William Earl Hidden from Newark, New Jersey, for 15,000 fl. with aid from the Imperial Household's fund, involving complex repayment transactions.

In 1889, items from Crown Prince Rudolf's private natural history collection, including his mineral collection, were entrusted to the Imperial Natural History Court Museum, contrary to his will which left them to teaching institutions.

Prior to the monarchy's collapse, the museum purchased the significant collection of Staatsrath Freiherr von Braun, totaling over 2,500 items, during the years 1906–1907.

Patron Isidor Weinberger donated a large amethyst specimen from Brazil and purchased Aristides Brezina's meteorite thin sections, presenting them to the museum.

Ferdinand von Hochstetter, a professor of mineralogy and geology, was appointed as the first superintendent of the Imperial Natural History Museum in 1876 and proposed a new organization for the museum.

Geologist and paleontologist Franz Ritter von Hauer became the superintendent of the museum in 1885, succeeding Ferdinand von Hochstetter.

Franz Steindachner acted as temporary director in 1896-1897 and then served as director from 1898 to 1919.

Hans Rebel served as the first Director of the museum from 1925 to 1932.

Hermann Michel served as the museum's director from 1933 to 1938 and again from 1945 to 1951.

Hans Kummerlöwe held the position of 'First Director of the Scientific Museums in Vienna' from 1939 to 1945.

Christian Köberl was the Director General and chief executive officer of the museum from 2010 to 2020.

Katrin Vohland has served as the Director General and chief executive officer since June 2020.

In 2022, the museum returned the remains of about 64 Māori and Moriori people, collected by Andreas Reischek, to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

The Natural History Museum and the adjacent Museum of Fine Arts were originally designed to be part of a much larger, unrealized project: an Imperial Forum.

The collection of gems and precious stones within Hall IV is noted as being one of the most comprehensive and valuable of its kind on the European continent.