Dutch Natural History Museums in the service of nature preservation

Since the time of the great geographical discoveries, since Henry the Navigator of Portugal and Christopher Columbus started to open up the whole world to the curiosity of naturalists, the Dutch and the English have played an important role in the explorations of the riches of God’s Nature. The Monarchs were the first to set up collections of animals and other natural curiosities from foreign tropical (and also arctic) countries and from everywhere. We need only remember Albrecht Dürer’s diary from 1520—1521, when he visited the Low Countries.