The Transvaal Museum is South Africa's leading natural history museum. It provides a memorable experience for the whole family. The Museum was founded in 1892 and changed locations a number of times as its collection grew. By 1925 the museum moved to its current location, a beautiful sandstone building on Paul Kruger Street. The entrance of this imposing building is decorated with the skeletons of dinosaurs and even a whale.
Some of the collection of the museum, which remained behind in its former location in Boom Street, became known as the National Cultural History Museum in 1964.
The Transvaal Museum was founded as the Staatsmuseum (Afrikaans for "State Museum") of the ZAR on the 1 December 1892. The Museum was amalgamated with the Pretoria-based National Cultural History Museum and the South African National Museum for Military History on 1 April 1999 to form the Northern Flagship Institution. The Institution is managed by a chief executive officer and a board, which replaced the three separate previous museum boards.
The museum currently houses a vast taxidermy collection as well as a number of fossils. The collecting policy of the Museum covers cultural history and natural history. On display are items made by the inhabitants of the old Transvaal, items of interest in the field of natural history, including animals, plants, fossils, minerals and ores as well as items of European origin and history, in particular those of the Boers and the Voortrekkers.
