The Otago Museum is situated in Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

, New Zealand. It was founded in 1868 and has a collection of over two million artefacts and specimens from the fields of natural history and ethnography. It is adjacent to the University of Otago

University of Otago

The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...

 campus in Dunedin North

Dunedin North

Dunedin North, also known as North Dunedin, is a major inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin, located to the northeast of the city centre. It contains many of the city's major institutions, including the city's university, polytechnic, main hospital, and largest museum...

, 1,500 metres northeast of the city centre.

The museum has changed over the years, a 2002 development being the addition of a new display area "Southern land, Southern people", dealing with the prehistory and history of the Otago

Otago

Otago is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island. The region covers an area of approximately making it the country's second largest region. The population of Otago is...

 region, and the refurbishment of galleries devoted to the cultures of Melanesia

Melanesia

Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...

. The museum has an outstanding Pacific Island collection, Australasia's most significant Classical collection, and the premier ceramic collection in New Zealand. It also houses a large assembly of natural history items. Notable among the latter is material related to New Zealand bird-life, including the world's most extensive collection of Moa

Moa

The moa were eleven species of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about ....

 remains.

The initial collection consisted of material from the 1865 New Zealand Exhibition (held in Dunedin). The King Street portion of the present building was completed in 1877, and was designed by David Ross (1828-1908). Further wings (the Hocken

Thomas Hocken

Thomas Morland Hocken was a prominent New Zealand collector, bibliographer and researcher. He was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire on 14 January 1836, the son of a Wesleyan minister, and educated at Woodhouse Grove School and a school in Newcastle...

 and Fels) and the centennial, were added in 1910, 1923 and 1963. The museum also houses lecture theatres and an interactive children's display centre ("Discovery World"), as well as a research centre and galleries which regularly host touring exhibitions. The entrance foyer is also home to a shop and cafeteria.

On 3 November 2007 the newest addition to the Otago Museum opened to the public, the three storeyed "Tropical Forest". This features a variety of flora and fauna from around the globe, including many species of butterfly from Asia and the Caribbean.

The museum had a record 472,600 visits in the year ending 30 June 2008.