Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Colmar Museum of Natural History and Ethnography originated in the creation of the Colmar Natural History Society (SHNC) on 22 May 1859, by local notables such as industrial Adolphe Hirn, doctors Gustave Bleicher and Charles Faudel, or sculptor Auguste Bartholdi. As early as 1860, the company installed its collections (zoology, geology, ethnography) in the Unterlinden convent, sharing space with the Schongauer Society until 1939. World War II disperses the collections, and the SHNC only reborn in 1953 under the impulse of Albert Couturier and Madeleine Jehl, before settling temporarily in 1959 in a pavilion of the chateau d'eau park.

In 1978, the city offered the former building of the Turenne School (dated 1467), which successively houses a school, the town hall, and a barracks. The museum moved in 1984 and officially opened in 1985, before adopting its current name in 1998 with the addition of ethnography. The museum obtained the label "Museum of France" in 2003 and was distinguished by its 72,000 objects, including rare fossils (ichthyosaur, Toarcian bird), Egyptian mummies (such as Nesy-Khonsou-Pakhered), and missing specimens (migrating pigeon, Atlas lion).

The collections reflect a dual vocation: scientific (botanical, paleontology, ornithology) and ethnographic, with objects from the five continents, including the Marquesas Islands, Ethiopia, or ancient Egypt. The library has 30,000 volumes, and the museum has been home to living aquariums since 1997. Its history illustrates the colmarian citizen engagement, combining donations from travellers, post-war safeguard, and adaptation to modern museum norms.

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