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Estonian Museum of Natural History


The Estonian Museum of Natural History (Eesti Loodusmuuseum in Estonian) is the Estonian national museum for natural history. It is situated in Tallinn's Old Town.

The museum focuses on natural history and nature education, offering its visitors a tour in the wilderness of Estonia. The exhibition space consists of permanent exhibition and temporary showcases.

The foundation of the Estonian Museum of Natural History was laid by naturalists of the XIX century.

The history of the museum goes back to an earlier museum, that of the Estonian Literary Society which was founded in 1842. This museum was active in exploring the natural sciences, an area that increased in significance at the museum in 1872 when Alexander von der Pahlen began to contribute to the collection. Von der Pahlen was later elected chairman and under his leadership the collection continued to grow.

It soon became apparent that a separate museum for natural history was needed. The collection was kept and displayed in a temporary building until 1911 when a building was purchased in Kohtu Street in Tallinn. The new Provincial Museum exhibited the art and natural sciences collection of the entire province of Harjumaa.

The collection was under threat of damage during the First World War so it was moved to Russia for safe keeping and returned when the war ended.

The Provincial Museum continued to operate under the Arts and Heritage Department of the Minister of Education and Research but changed its name back to The Estonian Literary Society in 1926.

After the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Baltic-German institutions, including the Estonian Literary Society, were closed. In 1940, through the Regulation of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Estonian SSR, the Soviet authorities nationalized all museums allowing for a National Museum of Natural History to be established in Tallinn on January 1, 1941 .

The collections of the Estonian Museum of Natural History contain nearly 300 000 museum specimens. Approximately 90% of the plant, beetle, butterfly and moth, bird and mammal species found in Estonia are represented in the collections. A highly valuable part of the collections is made up by type specimens – the specimens used to provide the first description of a new taxon and serving as a definitive example of that taxon.


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