he National Museum was established by the #King of #Portugal Dom João VI (1769–1826) in 1818 with the name of #Royal #Museum, in an initiative to stimulate scientific research in #Brazil, which until then was an immense and wild colony, practically unexplored by science. Initially the Museum sheltered botanical and animal specimens, especially birds, what caused the old building where it was located in center of #RiodeJaneiro, to be known by the population as the "House of the Birds".