The history of the museum represents more than one and a half century of events. In 1845 representatives of the Riga Balto-German intelligentsia founded the Riga Naturalist Society with a museum and library. The Society gathered Baltic nature enthusiasts (B.A. Gimmerthal, F. Buhse, A.E Merkel and others), who considered exploration of the local territory, formation of a basic collection and popularizing the natural sciences as their main priorities. The founders’ personal collections formed the basis for the new museum collection. 

   The Riga Naturalist Society Museum gathered and organized the most extensive collections of its day. They included Baltic animals, plants and minerals as well as diverse natural materials from abroad.

  The Himsel Museum, however, had been in operation in Riga since 1773. It was one of the first public museums in Europe gifted by the Himsel’s family of physicians and pharmacists.

  In 1858 the Himsel Museum collections were displayed at the Riga Naturalist Society at 11 Ðíûòu Street. In 1860 the collection was moved to the Riga Naturalist Society museum. 

  The Ðíûòu Street location also became home to the collections of the Researchers of History and Antiquities Society, together forming the Riga Museum. In 1890 the Riga Museum became part of the Doms ensemble and the resulting Doms Museum of Natural History. 

  The Society attracted increasing numbers of professionals and enthusiasts, the scope of research became broader and new directions of activity were developed. Nature protection attracted special attention, and in 1912 under the leadership of Society director Professor K.R. Kupfer, the first nature preserve in Latvia was established at Moricsala.

  In 1939 the Riga Naturalist Society was liquidated and its assets distributed: it was planned to move the foreign collections to Balto-Germany along with repatriated citizens and the Baltic collection was to stay in Riga, but some of the foreign collection wound up staying here as well. Several of the collections as well as the extensive library went to the University of Latvia and today are located at the LU Faculty of Biology.

  In 1940 the museum of the liquidated Society was turned over to the city of Riga and became the Riga Museum of Natural History.

  In January 1951 this museum was moved to the Ministry of Education School Museum at 4 K. Barona Street built in 1881-1882, designed by architect J.F. Baumanis as an apartment building.

  The School Museum housed many interesting exhibits, zoology and geology collections of great educational value and an extensive collection of educational materials. 

  The natural history collections of both museums were joined forming the Latvian SSR Museum of Natural History. The new collection retained the basic structure and format of the Riga Naturalist Society museum: a geology department with a paleontology collection, and separate departments of botany, zoology and entomology. An anthropology department was established, which popularized Darwinism from the viewpoint of Marxist ideology and not until much later did it broaden its work to include research into the ethno-genesis of Latvians.

  In 1968 museum collections were substantially improved with the addition of collections from the URRS Marine Geology and Geophysics Institute and the LSSR Regional Geology Museum of the Geology Administration.

  In 1972 the Latvian SSR Museum of Natural History participated in the formation of the USSR division of the International Museum Council (ICOM); the museum director worked in the offices of this division.

  The museum took a turn in a new direction in 1976 with the establishment of the nature protection department and permanent exhibit, which developed into a multi-faceted environmental education program.

  The museum houses a diverse collection of natural objects from Latvia and around the world consisting of 183,000 units. 

  The structural layout of the museum consists of 6 exposition departments, a collections department, an exhibit and information department, a taxidermy laboratory, a library and a photo laboratory. In 2001 an internal computer network consisting of 35 workstations was established at the museum.

  To broaden its environmental education program the museum continues to gather new and augment existing collections, teaches a caring attitude toward nature and promotes an intelligent use of its natural riches.