Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology ( MVZ ) is a zoological museum in Berkeley, which is located on the campus of the University of California in the Valley Life Sciences Building. It was founded in 1908 and houses an extensive vertebrate collection with a focus on North America.

History

The museum was established on the initiative of philanthropist and paleontological collector Annie Montague Alexander. She wrote in 1907 a letter to Benjamin Ide Wheeler, the then President of the University of California, where she presented an annual donation of $ 7,000 for the study of mammals, birds and reptiles of the North American west coast in view. In return, they demanded the establishment of a natural history museum in a fireproof, electrified buildings over which they claimed control for the next seven years. They also proposed Joseph Grinnell (1877-1939) before its first director.

Wheeler agreed and the MVZ was opened in 1908. Alexander invested a total of $ 750,000 in its expansion and donated 20,564 zoological and fossil samples, which she herself had collected or acquired. She participated in three decades actively involved in the organization of the museum.

1940 Alden Holmes Miller took the direction of the Museum, and had the post of Director held until his death in 1965.

Collections

The collection of the MVZ includes over 640,000 specimens of amphibians, reptiles, birds, bird eggs and mammals and more than 50,000 tissue samples of these vertebrates.

The collection is used exclusively for scientific research and is only once a year at an open day for the public.