Natural History Museum (Ireland)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ireland's Natural History Museum is housed on Merrion Street in Dublin. A bronze statue of Surgeon-General T.H. Parke stands in front of the Victoria-era building.

[edit] History

The Royal Dublin Society opened a museum in 1857, originally housed in Kildare Street. After several moves before and during the Irish War of Independence, the museum is now a unit of the National Museum of Ireland.

[edit] Collection

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, and many other specimens are not on display. Stephen Jay Gould did an extensive study of the specimens in the museum.

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 model "sunfish" (Basking shark) hangs from this ceiling.

On the next floor, the Lower Gallery contains mammals from around the world, including extinct or endangered species including a thylacine, a quagga, and a pygmy hippopotamus. The four higher galleries above are railed balconies around the walls, displaying more primitive animals, from birds through reptiles and fish to invertebrates and microbes. The second ceiling suspends a Humpback whale skeleton.

The museum also holds a complete Dodo skeleton, of uncertain origin.

As the collection is unique in range and vintage, so the exhibits are a product of their age, with faded and worn pelts and visible marks from bullets and rough taxidermy. Larger specimens are displayed in large, wood-framed glass cases while smallers ones are kept under glass, protected from sunlight by moveable leather panels. The main room is heated by an underfloor system similar to a Roman hypocaust.