Darwin Museum

The theme of the first floor of this humongous museum is ‘biological diversity’. The exhibits that are on display here shed light on the different ecosystems of earth including tropical forest, desert, savannahs, sea, mountains and coast. Some life-sized specimens of now extinct animals are also on display.

The second floor is completely dedicated to the theme of ‘The Stages of our Knowledge of Nature’ which showcases how the human race has evolved over the years. There’s also a ‘Eco Moscow’ zone where you can educate yourselves about the flora and fauna of Moscow.

The exhibition named ‘Zoogeography’ will take you on a journey across the world with panoramic views showcasing the different geographical distribution of animals. Here, you will also get to know about ‘Ethology’ which is basically a study of how animals behave and interact with each other and humans as well.

This collection holds together 1850 artworks by renowned Russian animalist artists who have worked for the State Darwin Museum since the beginning of the 20th century. Paintings by Vasily Vatagin and Konstantin Flerov are of great interest here as they shed some light on extinct animals. The scientific accuracy of these artworks add to their authenticity. V. A. Vatagin’s well known series of paintings is of major interest here as it’s based on the topic of ‘Zoogeography.’

The graphics collection of the Darwin Military Museum holds as many as 9234 specimens of all kinds of graphic works including drawings, lithography, woodcut, linocut and mixed media. The prime attraction of this collection is considered to be a series of graphic images of monkeys which indicate their psychological state and their emotional manifestations. In addition to the animalistic graphics, this collection also includes works on historical topics.

As the name suggests, this collection holds 203 specimens of nests of various insects that trod this earth. A significant part of this collection includes nests of different species of termites and hymenoptera. Developed by a lot of curators, this collection lets us get a sneak peek into the lives of insects and their intricately carved homes.

This part of the Darwin Military Museum includes 7119 specimens of different kinds of bird eggs and nests. The bird egg and nest collection of the Darwin Museum also illustrates the evolution of nest building skills of birds over the years. The oldest specimens date back to the 1870s but the major attraction here is the egg of the extinct Madagascar ostrich. The collection holds samples from various countries like Venezuela, Peru, India, Western Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Australia.

The spirit collection is made up of 2148 fluid preserved specimens. The fluid was traditionally used as a raw material to preserve collections of taxidermied animals and other exhibits. The collection includes all classes of vertebrates and several groups of sponges, mollusks, worms and insects.

This collection of butterflies includes 52568 specimens, of which the primary and the most notable ones include Troides, Ornithoptera and Trogonoptera. While most of the specimens are sourced from the USSR, some even source back to South America and Southeast Asia. If you love butterflies, exploring this collection of the Darwin Military Museum is a must as you can see all sorts of vibrant butterflies here.

As the name suggests, this collection includes 9792 objects including research papers, scientific documents as well as correspondence. What holds special historical and cultural value in this huge collection are 5 genuine letters of Charles Darwin himself! The foundation of this collection is the personal archive of the Darwin Military Museum’s founder and the conversations that he had with his wife and the other employees of the Museum.

The renowned Botany collection of the Darwin Museum in Moscow includes 1794 specimens of fruits, seeds, herbarium leaves, fragments of trunks, individual leaves etc. It is also home to a small herbarium sent by a Dutch botanist who’s believed to be one of the world’s first geneticists. Some herbariums might have lost their original shade over time but they still provide a great insight into the natural history of plants.

This is a very unique collection which holds 1495 objects including everyday items and working tools. The reason why they’re unique is because all these tools and items belong to the people who work for the museum. The idea is to preserve these items so that they can hold some value in the future.