National Museum of Ireland, Merrion Street

About

The National Museum of Ireland – Natural History (Irish: Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann – Stair an Dúlra), 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 Collection comprised sub-collections for zoology, geology and botany; the geological collections have largely been held in storage from the 1960s, and the botanical collection was moved to National Botanic Gardens in 1970. However, the museum's zoological collection, and its building, have changed little since Victorian times, and it is sometimes described as a "museum of a museum" or a "stately home of death". Admission has been free of charge for decades, and attendance grew from 106,000 in 2007 to over 336,000 in 2017, and 388,000 in 2019, despite chronic staff shortages, and two of its four floors being closed since 2007. After temporary closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum closed in November 2020 for an indefinite period for major renovations, with the collections being moved over...

The Natural History Collection comprises over 2 million items in the fields of zoology and geology, a million of the specimens being insects. There was previously also a botanical collection but this was transferred to the National Botanic Gardens in 1970.

As with many other natural history museums, the majority of specimens are not on display, for example the entirety of the geological collections. In 1962, a building known as "the Annexe", which housed the main geological displays, was demolished to make way for the Dáil Éireann restaurant and office; this led to these collections being placed in storage in buildings in Beggars Bush and elsewhere, and most have remained in storage since then. A selection from the geological collections was placed on display in the National Museum of Ireland site at Collins Barracks, this exhibition being opened on 27 September 2021 for 18 months.

Among the many scientists who have studied the collections, Stephen Jay Gould did an essay based on the Irish elk in the museum.

The museum building is a ‘cabinet-style’ museum designed to showcase a wide-ranging and comprehensive zoological collection, and has changed little in over a century. Often described as a "museum of a museum" or a "stately home of death" the exhibitions display 10,000 specimens from around the world. An online virtual exhibition of the interior is available on the museum website, showing the building before it was emptied for building works.

The Irish Room, the ground floor of the museum, displays Irish animals, notably several mounted skeletons of giant Irish deer. Numerous skulls of those and other deer line the walls. Stuffed and mounted mammals, birds, fish — and insects and other animals native to or found in Ireland — comprise the rest of the ground floor. Many of the specimens of currently extant animals, such as badgers, hares, and foxes, are over a century old. A basking shark hangs from this ceiling. This grouping of Irish fauna in one room dates from 1910, when the collections were arranged by geography rather than purely taxonomy.

The first floor contains mammals from around the world, including extinct or endangered species, including in turn a thylacine, and a pygmy hippopotamus. Also on display is the polar bear shot by Admiral Sir Francis Leopold McClintock. Many of the mounted specimens were purchased from or donated by the Royal Zoological Gardens, Dublin. Part of the large collection of Irish birds bequeathed by Richard Barrington is mounted along one wall.

The Lower gallery, closed to general access since 2007, contains bird specimens from around the world. Above this, the second ceiling suspends a humpback whale and fin whale skeleton. This floor includes a composite dodo skeleton, from Mauritius.

The Upper gallery, also closed since 2007, displays invertebrate and marine specimens including the Museum's collection of Glass Sea Creatures made by the glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka (the makers of Harvard's famous Glass Flowers collection). Numerous game heads can be seen mounted on pillars from the first floors up to the upper gallery, many of which were presented to the museum in the 1930s.

The museum building is a ‘cabinet-style’ museum designed to showcase a wide-ranging and comprehensive zoological collection, and has changed little in over a century. Often described as a "museum of a museum" or a "stately home of death" the exhibitions display 10,000 specimens from around the world. An online virtual exhibition of the interior is available on the museum website, showing the building before it was emptied for building works.

The Irish Room, the ground floor of the museum, displays Irish animals, notably several mounted skeletons of giant Irish deer. Numerous skulls of those and other deer line the walls. Stuffed and mounted mammals, birds, fish — and insects and other animals native to or found in Ireland — comprise the rest of the ground floor. Many of the specimens of currently extant animals, such as badgers, hares, and foxes, are over a century old. A basking shark hangs from this ceiling. This grouping of Irish fauna in one room dates from 1910, when the collections were arranged by geography rather than purely taxonomy.

The first floor contains mammals from around the world, including extinct or endangered species, including in turn a thylacine, and a pygmy hippopotamus. Also on display is the polar bear shot by Admiral Sir Francis Leopold McClintock. Many of the mounted specimens were purchased from or donated by the Royal Zoological Gardens, Dublin. Part of the large collection of Irish birds bequeathed by Richard Barrington is mounted along one wall.

The Lower gallery, closed to general access since 2007, contains bird specimens from around the world. Above this, the second ceiling suspends a humpback whale and fin whale skeleton. This floor includes a composite dodo skeleton, from Mauritius.

The Upper gallery, also closed since 2007, displays invertebrate and marine specimens including the Museum's collection of Glass Sea Creatures made by the glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka (the makers of Harvard's famous Glass Flowers collection). Numerous game heads can be seen mounted on pillars from the first floors up to the upper gallery, many of which were presented to the museum in the 1930s.

The museum was built in 1786 to house the Royal Dublin Society's growing collections, which had expanded continually since the late 18th century. From 1786 the collections grew through the work of 'itinerant mineralogist' Donald Stewart. In 1792 the Society purchased the collection of Nathaniel Gottfried Leske under the instruction of Richard Kirwan. Leske's collection was one of Europe's largest natural history collections. From this core collection, the Professor of Mineralogy in the RDS, Karl Ludwig Giesecke, expanded the collection by travelling Ireland and internationally including Greenland.

The museum in Leinster House opened to the public two days a week from 1832, having been previously the private museum of the members of the RDS. Foreseeing that the museum might become a national museum, in 1836 a special Parliamentary Committee determined that the public should have greater access, which would require a larger building. By 1850, with visitor numbers reaching 44,000, there were complaints of the cramped conditions during the restrictive public visiting hours of two days a week, nine months out of twelve. Alexander Carte was appointed curator, and then director, of the Natural History Museum, and oversaw a period of expansion of the collections, with the aim of making the museum more representative of geological and zoological diversity both nationally and internationally. Carte also began organising the exhibitions and collections into groups pertaining to Ireland, and then international specimens. He reorganised the insect collections, documenting the damage and loss of specimens that had occurred in the Leskean collection. As part of his strategy to encourage more donations, Carte published lists of the acquisitions and donors in the new Journal of the Royal Dublin Society.

In 1853 the Society began plans for the new museum building by applying for a grant from the Treasury, partly in compensation for the building the RDS had handed over to Board of Trade which was to become the New School of Design. A grant of £5000 was made available, with a further £2500 to be raised by public subscription. This resulted in the building which still houses the Natural History Museum today. It was originally built as an extension to Leinster House, where the Royal Dublin Society was based from 1815 until 1922.

The building was designed by architect Frederick Clarendon in harmony with the National Gallery of Ireland on the other side of Leinster Lawn. The frame of the building is cast iron, largely clad internally with timber on the upper floors. The exterior uses dressed granite and Portland stone.

The foundation stone was laid on 15 March 1856 by Earl Carlisle, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and the building was completed in 1857 by contractors Gilbert Cockburn & Son. It was connected to Leinster House by a curved closed Corinthian colonnade, which once held displays of the Geological Survey of Ireland. The connection of the buildings allowed a visitor to move from Leinster House to the Museum building, and was eventually connected with the purpose built museum on Kildare Street.

The new museum building was opened in August 1857. The first event was a Conversazione on 27 August attended by 1500 including Earl Carlisle. On 31 August the explorer David Livingstone delivered a lecture in the museum.