Museum Origins Room

This room takes you back in time to 1875, the year when Alfonso XII inaugurated Doctor Velasco's Anthropological Museum in this same building. The room does it so with a display that reminds us of the kind of objects which then were use in the exhibition. Some are from that time, and others are similar to the original pieces, although they were added to the museum later.

Pedro González de Velasco (1815-1882) was a well-known doctor, of humble origins, who dedicated part of his life, and many resources to collecting objects with which to make a science museum in his own home. He twice had to move home to a larger residence, staying on the Calle Atocha, until he commissioned the most famous architect of the time, Francisco de Cubas, to construct this building. In its lateral pavilions, he also had his house, clinic, laboratory and the surgical amphitheatre where he taught.

His professional training and the consideration of anthropology as one of the natural sciences explain how the original exhibition, with human beings as its central theme, included objects related with the geological origins of the Earth, plants and animals, as well as objects related with prehistoric and modern cultures without clear organisation or selection.

A real journey in time, to the origins of anthropology and modern museum science!