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| Museo de la Exploración | |
|---|---|
| Name | Museo de la Exploración |
| Native name | Museo de la Exploración |
| Established | 1984 |
| Location | Santiago, Chile |
| Type | Exploration museum |
| Director | Dr. Alejandro Fuentes |
| Website | Official site |
Museo de la Exploración is a museum in Santiago, Chile, dedicated to the history and practice of exploration, scientific voyages, and field research across Patagonia, Antarctica, the Andes, and the Pacific. The institution links collections from early European expeditions, South American scientific societies, naval voyages, and modern polar programs with programs from universities, research institutes, and cultural organizations. Its exhibitions and archives intersect with themes represented by institutions such as the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (Chile), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Chile, Comisión Chilena del Límite Antártico and international partners including the British Antarctic Survey, National Science Foundation (United States), and Instituto Antártico Chileno.
Founded in 1984 through a collaboration between the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (Chile), the Compañía de Teléfonos de Chile legacy fund, and the Ministerio de Educación (Chile), the museum arose during a period of renewed national interest in scientific heritage and maritime history. Early collections derived from donations linked to figures such as Ferdinand Magellan, represented through facsimiles, the archives of Benito V. Vicuña Mackenna’s travel notebooks, and material from the expeditions of Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s lesser-known South American journeys, reframed within scholarly contexts. Throughout the 1990s the museum expanded with acquisitions from the estate of Alberto de Agostini and field records associated with Captain James Cook’s Pacific voyages, while forging ties with archives at the Royal Geographical Society and the Smithsonian Institution.
In the 2000s the museum modernized exhibition techniques in partnership with the Getty Conservation Institute and the International Council of Museums, and launched digitization projects with support from the World Bank cultural heritage program and the Inter-American Development Bank. Notable exhibitions have included retrospectives on Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, and South American explorers such as Francisco de Orellana and Pedro de Valdivia, curated alongside material from the Instituto Geográfico Militar (Chile).
The permanent collection comprises navigation instruments, cartographic archives, natural history specimens, field journals, and audiovisual records spanning the Age of Discovery to contemporary Antarctic science. Highlights include original sextants attributed to crews of vessels associated with HMS Beagle and replication logs linked to Charles Darwin, botanical samples collected during expeditions related to Alexander von Humboldt, and geological specimens connected to the surveys of Ignacio Domeyko. The museum houses multimedia installations that juxtapose recordings from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-supported oceanographic campaigns with historical footage from Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores voyages.
Temporary exhibits rotate seasonally and have featured thematic shows on glaciology collaborations with United Nations Environment Programme initiatives, ethnographic presentations involving Mapuche materials contextualized with the archives of Museo Mapuche Ruka Pillañ, and interdisciplinary displays curated with the Universidad de Concepción and the Smithsonian Institution’s Arctic collections. The archives include correspondence from polar program leaders connected to Admiral Gabriel González Videla’s Antarctic policies, logbooks from HMS Endurance expeditions, and field notebooks from scientists affiliated with the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas.
Housed in a repurposed 19th-century port warehouse near the Estación Mapocho precinct, the building blends historic masonry with contemporary additions by architects from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile design studio and international conservation teams from the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. The facility contains climate-controlled storage designed to standards used by the Natural History Museum, London and specialized conservation labs modeled on protocols from the Getty Conservation Institute.
Visitor amenities include lecture halls equipped for symposia co-hosted with the Universidad de Santiago de Chile and the Universidad Austral de Chile, an interactive cartography room supported by collaborations with the Instituto Geográfico Nacional (Argentina), and a research reading room housing rare maps linked to the Archivo Nacional de Chile and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Outdoor demonstration spaces accommodate replicas of expeditionary field camps and maritime replicas tied to Juan Fernández Islands history.
The museum runs school outreach and curriculum-aligned programs in partnership with the Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio (Chile), offering teacher training, guided modules, and traveling exhibits deployed to regional museums such as Museo Regional de Magallanes and Museo del Mar de Valparaiso. Academic residencies and fellowships support postdoctoral researchers from institutions like Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford to work on digitization, cartography, and conservation projects.
Research initiatives include long-term projects on historical climatology with the Centro de Estudios Científicos and biodiversity studies conducted alongside the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The museum publishes a peer-reviewed annual bulletin, produced jointly with the Academia Chilena de la Historia and distributed to partners including the Royal Geographical Society and the American Geographical Society.
The museum is located in central Santiago near Plaza de Armas (Santiago) and Estación Central (Santiago Metro), with visiting hours adjusted seasonally and special evening programs during Noche de los Museos (Chile). Ticketing options include single-entry, discounted educational group rates for students affiliated with Universidad de Santiago de Chile and Universidad de Valparaíso, and membership tiers that provide access to seminars with visiting scholars from Smithsonian Institution and British Antarctic Survey. Accessibility services comply with standards promoted by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and on-site staff offer guided tours in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.
Governance rests with a board comprising representatives from the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (Chile), the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, the Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio (Chile), and private foundations such as the Fundación Andes and corporate partners including Empresa Nacional del Petróleo. Funding is a hybrid of public subventions, competitive grants from bodies like the Inter-American Development Bank cultural programs, philanthropic gifts from families associated with the Larraín and Krupp legacies, and revenue from ticketing and museum shop sales. Strategic partnerships with international agencies such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization support conservation projects and capacity-building exchanges.