National Museum of Natural History

The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle , is the natural history museum of France and a grand établissement of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum is located in Paris, on the left bank of the Seine. It was established in 1635 by King Louis XIII as the royal garden of medicinal plants, and in 1793, after the Revolution, it was reorganized in its present form and under its present title. As of 2017, the museum has 14 sites throughout France, including the original location at the Jardin des Plantes, which remains one of the seven departments of MNHN.

The museum was formally founded on 10 June 1793, during the French Revolution. Its origins lie, however, in the Jardin royal des plantes médicinales created by King Louis XIII in 1635, which was directed and run by the royal physicians. The royal proclamation of the boy-king Louis XV on 31 March 1718, however, removed the purely medical function, enabling the garden—which became known simply as the Jardin du Roi —to focus on natural history.

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