Bergen Museum

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Natural history building

The Bergen Museum is a university museum in Bergen, Norway. Founded in 1825 with the intent of building large collections in the fields of culture and natural history, it became the grounds for most of the academic activity in the city, a tradition which has prevailed since the museum became part of the University of Bergen. Bergen Museum is divided into two departments, the Natural History Collections and the Cultural History Collections. It is also the caretaker of the botanical garden surrounding the natural history building, and the city's arboretum.

[edit] History

Bergen Museum was founded in 1825 by Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie, at the time president of the Storting. In its early years, the museum contained numerous art collections, including several works by the painter Johan Christian Dahl, cultural artefacts, and craftwork items.^[1] In 1931, the museum moved from its location in the Seminarium Fredericianum building near Bergen katedralskole, to a new building south-west of Lille Lungegårdsvann. This was the first dedicated museum building in Norway.^[1] The current natural history building was finished in 1865, and Bergen Museum moved in in 1866. The botanical garden was laid out between 1897 and 1899, and the cultural history department got its own building in 1927. The increasing research activity at the museum from the late 19th century and onwards led directly to the founding of the University of Bergen in 1948.