Zhejiang Natural History Museum
By admin on 2014-12-29

Zhejiang natural history museum is one of the longest-history museums created by Chinese people alone, and also the unique provincial museum mainly focusing on collections, exhibitions and research on specimens of life science and earth science. Its precursor is the West Lake Museum established on a basis of the West Lake Exposition in 1929. According to historical materials, the grand exposition then contained eight departments and two institutions. The museum, covering the maximum area at that time, was divided into several branch museums such as marine products, plants, insects, animals, minerals, zoo, Dayao Mountain (in Guangxi Province) and so forth. The exhibition enjoyed abundant species and numerous exhibits. The exposition left a profound influence, and it would be a great pity if exhibits were short of proper management. So the exposition applied to build the West Lake Museum by the provincial government and move part of exhibits to donate to the museum for memory and appreciation.

During the war, Zhejiang West Lake Museum migrated successively from Fangyan in Yongkang County, SanYan Temple in Lishui City, Nanzhou Village in Songyang County, and Longquan County. Under the toughest conditions, Mr. DongYumao, the former curator, together with his colleagues such as Zhong Guoyi, Kang Meiye and so forth, saved museum collections from destruction. So far, several hundred specimens surviving through 80 years have been kept well in ZMNH, ranking the “senior” among the whole exhibits.

After 1949, the West Lake Museum got a new life, and was renamed “Zhejiang Provincial Museum” in 1952. In July 1984, the nature department at that time had independent accounting system and became today’s Zhejiang Museum of Natural History. The museum was located at No. 71, Jiaogong Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, covering a total area of 6,000 square meters and an exhibition area of 3,051square meters. And it was open to the public in January, 1998. During more than 20 years under the concern from the superior leadership and relative departments, ZMNH has insisted on “the goal of keeping close to the reality, life and people” and effectively developed the function of the museum. ZMNH has received much reputation such as the National and Provincial Bases for Popular Science Education, Base for Provincial Patriotism Education, Base to Popularize Environmental Science in Hangzhou, Advanced Collective of Science Popularization, Advanced Unit of Ecological Morals Education for the Minors, and so on.

ZMNH is a non-profit, open and permanent cultural institution invested and managed by the government. The museum boasts of 75 staff members, four-fifths of whom are professional staff, 27 members with senior professional title and 14 with mid level title. The organizational structure can be divided into four sections with 12 sub-section offices. The four sections are Comprehensive Management, Life Science, Earth Science, Popular Science and Service.

In collections, there are more than 120,000 objects gathered and collected by the museum alone, or donated by individuals or units, such as ancient life, mineral, rock, plant, mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, aquatic invertebrate, insect, oil painting of nature and so on. These collected objects cover extensive fields and assembling rare curiosities. In addition, dinosaur eggs, marine reptile fossils, animal remains in cultural relicts, marine organisms, and birds enjoy rich collections and distinctive features. Moreover, several hundred samples such as Dinosaurs in Jiangshan (in Zhejiang Province), Pterosaurs in Linhai, Zhejiang, Whale shark, Grey whale, are the best specimens in contrast to their counterparts at home and abroad.