• Museum was established in 1844 by Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., 1st President of Notre Dame.
• Most specimens were lost in a fire that destroyed Main Building in April, 1879.
• Museum Curator, Rev. John Zahm, C.S.C., was responsible for rebuilding the collections.
• Many of the large skeletons currently on display were received by the University in March, 1897.
• Notre Dame Herbarium was founded by Rev. Julius Nieuwland, C.S.C., in 1904.
• Edward Lee Greene Herbarium was transferred to Notre Dame in 1914.
• From 1884 until 1952 the Museum occupied part of the 1st floor and the entire 2nd floor of the Science Building (now LaFortune Hall).
• Biological collections were moved to the "new" biology building (what is now called Haggar Hall) in 1952.
• Biological collections were moved to the newly constructed Galvin Life Science Center in 1971.
• Biological collections were reassembled in Jordan Hall of Science forming the Museum of Biodiversity in 2006.
• Fossil collections were transferred from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences to the Museum in 2012.

The Class of Comparative Osteology

Father John Zahm, C.S.C. and Theodore Roosevelt on Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition to the Brazilian Amazon basin (1913-1914)