A preparatory committee for the establishment of the museum was set up in 1949, and late the following year the first display opened on the second floor of
Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts. Designated a
museum-equivalent facility in accordance with the
Museum Act in 1952, the opened in a repurposed
elementary school in 1958. This predecessor institution closed to the public in 1973. The renamed Osaka Museum of Natural History opened in
Nagai Park in 1974. ==Collections==