Their herbarium is staffed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute, and has material dating back to 1812 collected by William John Burchell, as well as geological material gathered by Andrew Geddes Bain and W. G. Atherstone.
The museum also houses a large collection of South African vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, and palaeolithic stone tools discovered by Thomas Holden Bowker (1808-1885) near the Great Fish River.
Spread over seven buildings: housing the Natural Sciences Museum, the History Museum, the Observatory Museum, Fort Selwyn, the Old Provost military prison, Drostdy Arch and the Old Priest’s House: the museum also has an important scientific and historical library which houses rare books.
There are a number of research departments and all museum collections are curated by specialists in their fields.
