These photographs show the exhibition room, collections, library corner, and auditorium of the Osaka Museum of Natural History, which is one of Japan's leading regional natural history museums and exemplifies the concept of natural history museums as cultural facilities. The basic activities of a natural history museum are to continually collect, organize, and store specimens and materials related to nature, as well as to conduct research and share the results of their work with society at large through research presentations, exhibitions, and outreach activities. Whereas museum exhibits generally tend to attract the most attention, less is known about the vast number of valuable specimens and materials not on display that are stored in collections out of the public eye. These objects have been collected continuously over many years and are irreplaceable evidence of a region's natural environment. They have been collected, organized, and studied with the cooperation of not only museum staff but also people associated with the museum, and these activities will continue for the foreseeable future. The role of natural history museums as cultural facilities is to utilize their facilities and equipment for promoting the dissemination of natural history science based on the specimens and materials under their stewardship.
Photo credit: Osaka Museum of Natural History (https://www.omnh.jp/ [Cited 2025/1/10])
(Shigeko HARUYAMA, Yasuji SAITO and Daiji HIRATA)
