Fifth era (1985-nowadays)
The Museum, after the restructuring that made it able to recover the sections that years before have been removed, came back in 1985 to be a center that join research and the conservation of the scientific collections, and that exhibited and publicised its holdings, as it did in the first third of the 20th century.
The researcher Emiliano Aguirre Enríquez was the managing director of the Museum. He was manager of the Vertebrate and Human Palaeontology section. He was only a year as an interim director, but his time at the Museum was a real turning point for the institution.
After a detailed diagnosis of the Museum's situation, Aguirre started his mandate with the close of the south wing of the Museum to to renovate the exhibitions dedicated to Geology and Palaeontology in view of it's deteriorating state. Aguirre reported heritage thefts, specially robosel of the 18th-century van Berkhey iconographic collection, which had been in the Museum since the days of the Royal Cabinet, and of other valuable bibliographical gems. Thanks to his efforts, and those of subsequent directors, more than 4,500 plates stolen from this collection were recovered.
Under Aguirre's leadership, improvements were made to the infrastructure of the roofs, corridors and stairways. Dampness was eliminated. The rooms were disinfected and their atmospheric conditions were controlled with thermometers and hygrometers. Specimens from the Zoology and Palaeontology collections were restored. The minerals and rocks on display were renovated and the Geomorphology Room was refurbished. An inventory of the collections was begun for their subsequent computerisation with the help of employees hired through an agreement with the National Employment Institute. The three libraries of the centres that previously formed the Museum were brought together in a single library. In addition, specialised staff were employed to carry out educational activities and a pioneering project was launched to adapt visits to the Museum for the disabled. Curatorial and research posts were obtained for disciplines that did not have a specialist at the time, such as mastozoology, ichthyology and malacology.
Aguirre was succeeded in October 1986 by the first woman director of the Museum, the botanist Concepción Sáenz Laín, who came from the Royal Botanical Garden. The eminent palaeontologist continued to collaborate with the Museum on exhibitions and the project for a new Palaeontology and Geology room. Sáenz directed the Museum for two years, during which he mainly promoted the museum part of the institution and scientific dissemination to society. He founded the Society of Friends of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in 1986 and planned what would become the History of the Earth and Life exhibition in the Geology pavilion. It opened its doors to the public on 31 May 1989 with this great exhibition on the history of the Earth, animals and plants of the past. The opening ceremony was attended by the then King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain, who were received by the successor of the Museum's director, Pere Alberch.
Alberch was director until November 1995 and his term of office was characterised by numerous temporary and travelling exhibitions - modern, interactive and audiovisual - which attracted a large number of visitors: Dinosaurs, Fantastic Animals, Unknown Monsters; 600 Million Years of Underwater Travel; Giant Insects; Beloved Earth, First Europeans...
From 1987, the Museum was governed by a Board of Trustees made up of a representative of the different institutions that made it up: the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Community of Madrid, Madrid City Council, the Polytechnic University and the CSIC, as well as the director of the centre itself. This Board of Trustees drew up a four-year Action Plan (1986-1990) which detailed the remodelling work that meant the closure of part of the centre to the public for several years: from mid-1990 until January 10th, 1994. This time the inauguration ceremony was attended by the then Prince of Asturias, now King Felipe VI. The new design was modelled on the renovation of the Natural History Museum in London.
Desde 1987, el Museo estaba regido por un Patronato formado por un representante de las distintas instituciones que lo componían: Ministerio de Educación, Ministerio de Cultura, Comunidad de Madrid, Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Universidad Politécnica y el CSIC, además del director/a del propio centro. Este Patronato diseño un Plan de Acción de cuatro años (1986-1990) que detalló las obras de remodelación que supusieron la clausura de parte del centro al público durante varios años: de mediados de 1990 hasta el 10 de enero de 1994. Esta vez la ceremonia de inauguración contó con la presencia del entonces Príncipe de Asturias, hoy rey, Felipe VI. Para su nuevo diseño se tomó como modelo la renovación operada en el Museo de Historia Natural de Londres.
This was not only an architectural transformation, but also an organisational one, with a new organisational chart that grouped the staff and their tasks around the three main areas of the Museum: Collections, Exhibitions and Research. Years later, a Communications Department was created to disseminate to the media and social networks (Twitter, Facebook and YouTube) the scientific achievements of the Museum in the course of its research and the activities it organises periodically. These activities include recreational and educational activities -for both children and adults- that have been implemented continuously since the 90s in the form of workshops, courses and camps.
An auxiliary research support service was also created, the Documentation Service, which includes the Library, the Archive and a Paper Restoration Laboratory. The collections of both the Archive and the Library can be consulted on the Internet as they are integrated into the catalogue of the CSIC Library Network.
Se creó también un servicio auxiliar de apoyo a la investigación, el Servicio de Documentación, en el que se integró la Biblioteca, el Archivo y un Laboratorio de Restauración de Papel. Los fondos, tanto del Archivo como de la Biblioteca, se pueden consultar en Internet al estar integrados dentro del catálogo de la Red de Bibliotecas del CSIC.
Research, on the other hand, was organised around different departments corresponding to major thematic areas of the natural sciences. There are currently six departments: Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology; Biogeography and Global Change; Biogeochemistry and Microbial Ecology; Evolutionary Ecology; Geology; Palaeobiology.
The collections currently housed in the Museum include fifteen purely scientific collections, two scientific-artistic collections and four collections that form part of the Documentation Service. The scientific collections house some eleven million specimens - of which 41.238 are type specimens - of 320.000 different species from the animal kingdom. In addition, tissue samples (105.000) and DNA sequences (16.517) are kept in its biobank. Its collections also include an important collection of animal sounds in its sound library (about 50,000 records of more than 16.000 species), digitisations (images) of its collections in different databases, books and journals in its library, historical documents, plates and photographs in its archive, and an important collection of scientific instruments, furniture and works of art (paintings, busts, medals and bezoar stones).
The origin of the specimens that have entered the Museum's collections in recent years is very varied: a significant number of samples correspond to collection work carried out in scientific campaigns and projects, not only at the Museum but also at other Spanish and foreign research centres. Private donations are, in some collections, an important source of income of specimens. Seizures made by SEPRONA (Guardia Civil), seizures at customs and dead animals in zoos also provide the collections with protected species, many of which are in danger of extinction. In this regard, it should be noted that the Museum is the national Scientific Authority for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
In addition to the strictly scientific use of these collections, it frequently lends specimens from its collections for exhibitions at the Museum itself and other museums such as the Prado, the Reina Sofía, the Thyssen Bornemisza, the National Archaeological Museum, the Cerralbo Museum, the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos, the Regional Archaeological Museum of the Community of Madrid and the Museum of the Enlightenment in Valencia. Pieces are also loaned to other institutions such as the Royal Botanical Garden, the National Library, the Royal Palace, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and the Royal National Academy of Medicine.
Over the years the Museum has been accelerating the computerisation and digitisation of its collections, which has enabled it to increase its international dimension. It is a founding member of the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities, Scientific Colletions International (CETAF), a European network of museums of natural sciences, natural history and botanical gardens from 21 countries that share access to their collections.
It also takes part in and has been a founding member since 2013 of another consortium with the aim of giving visibility to scientific collections: Scientific Collections International (SciColl). Providing scientific information on living beings from all over the planet to anyone who requests it is what the open access network on biological diversity Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) does, of which the Museum is also a member, through the Spanish node of GBIF.
The European project financed by the European Union SYNTHESYS + (Synthesis of Systematic Resources) sets common standards and protocols for the conservation of collections and databases and allows the mobility of researchers through short stays in the centres that make up the project. Since 2004, the Museum, through this project, has received more than a hundred researchers from all over Europe who have had access to its collections and services for research purposes.
Nowadays, the European museums and botanic gardens work coordinate in the establishment of a new infrastructure of pan-European research, Distributed System of Scientific Colletions (DiSSCo), that will allow a centralisation of physical access, through researchers' stays; remote access, through the loan of specimens; and virtual access through the digitisation of 1.5 billion biological and geological specimens from the collections of 23 European countries.
In the second decade of the 21th century there were made new permanent exhibitions, like Minerals, fossils and human evolution (2010), in the south wing, Biodiversity (2012), in the main hall of the north wing of the building, with new showcases and new technologies such as augmented reality and different interactive stations. The exhibition The Royal Cabinet of Natural History (2011) was renewed. These exhibitions involved a new museological approach that meant the return to the Museum's rooms of a large number of specimens from collections, long sought after by the visiting public, which now serve to explain the biological processes linked to biodiversity and its conservation.
The National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) is nowadays a dynamic museum. It is an international reference in the research of the natural sciences and the consequences of the human impact over the nature and the planet, that has a enormous historical heritage at the same time that it preserves modern scientific infrastructures and unique collections. It's aim is to spread the scientific knowledge in an universal way to all the society, educating and promoting scientific vocations in the younger generations. The Museum future goal is having similar spaces, staff and economical resources as other European natural sciences museums, to be able to to offer a great facility at the service of science and society, of which Spain is proud.
National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) Directors from 1985 to nowadays
- Emiliano Aguirre Enríquez (1985-1986)
- Concepción Sáenz Laín (1986-1988)
- Pere Alberch Vié (1988-1995)
- Manuel Hoyos Gómez (1995-1996)
- Roberto Fernández de Caleya (1996-1997)
- Monserrat Gomendio Kindelán (1997-2002)
- Alfonso Gabriel Navas Sánchez (2002-2009)
- Esteban Manrique Reol (2009-2013)
- Santiago Merino Rodríguez (2013-2021)
- Rafael Zardoya San Sebastián (2021- )
Text by Carolina Martín Albaladejo and Ana García Herranz
Continue discovering the history of the MNCN
Foundation and first era (1771-1814)