The Imperial Natural History Museum or Imperial Royal Natural History Court Museum

of Austria-Hungary was created by (Kaiser) Emperor Franz Joseph I during an

extensive reorganization of the museum collections, from 1851�1876, and opened to
the public on August 10, 1889. Located in Vienna, the Museum was named in German as
"K.k. Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum" (with "Hofmuseum" translated as "Court Museum").
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Later, the Museum became part of the Natural History Museum of Vienna, Austria (in
German, "Naturhistorisches Museum Wien" or NHM-Wien).

When officially begun in 1876, Austrian geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter

(1829�1884) became the first superintendent[2] of the Imperial Natural History
Museum, after having been, from 1860, professor of mineralogy and geology at the
Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute in Vienna. In 1886, Austrian geologist and
paleontologist Franz Ritter von Hauer became second superintendent of the Imperial
Natural History Museum (more at "History" below).

The main building for the Museum was constructed between 1871-1891.

See more about the current museum at: Naturhistorisches Museum.