The Muséum des sciences naturelles d'Angers (commonly called Muséum d'Angers, as opposed to the arts museums, called Musées d'Angers) is a municipal museum in Angers (Maine-et-Loire, France). Dedicated to Natural History, the Muséum d'Angers houses in its collections about objects, including birds, shells, fossils, insects and herbarium samples, as well as hundreds of specimens taxidermised or in liquid, skeletons, minerals, technical instruments and Documents. The Muséum d'Angers receives annually about visitors, as well as school groups, interns, researchers and volunteers.
Open to the public since 1801, the Muséum d'Angers has a long and rich history.
The initial nucleus of the collection dates from the French Revolution. By the Decree of 22 November 1790, Gabriel Eleanor Merlet de la Boulaye (1736–1807) is assigned the gathering of all books and natural history collections seized in the national houses. Recovered from the whole region, especially from the houses of emigrants, they are initially stored in Saint Sergius' Abbey, Angers. Unfortunately, they were plundered by the Vendeans who besieged Angers in December 1793.
In 1795 the Central School of Maine-et-Loire was established in the Barrault House. Joseph-Étienne Renou (1740–1809), collaborator of Merlet, is appointed to the professorship of Natural History and, with what remained of the collections at Saint Sergius' Abbey, forms a natural history collection for teaching in the new school. The collections were enriched thanks to Louis-Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux (1753–1824), member of the Directory.
La Révellière-Lépeaux invited Renou to Paris in 1798, where he was allowed to receive objects from the National Museum of Natural History, including a group of 12 fossil fish brought from Italy (Monte Bolca) by Bonaparte in 1797, which still exists with their original labels.
The collection finally opened its doors to the public as a Museum of Natural History on 5 May 1801. In 1805, when the Central School was abolished, the museum became municipal, while remaining in the Barrault House, together with the Museum of Fine Arts.