The Natural History Museum, opened for public use by Lviv residents in 1880, was created by Count Volodymyr Dzedushytskyi on the basis of his collection, the beginnings of which date back to 1845. After transporting the collection from his family's Poturytsa, Count Dzedushytskyi placed it in a tenement house on the corner of Fredra and Batory Streets (now Fredra and Kniazya Romana Streets), later in a palace at 15 Kurkova Street (now Lysenko Street). In 1868, a building No. 18 on Teatralna Street was purchased to house the museum (after Volodymyr Vuytsyk, built in 1797 by architect Pierre Denis Guibot and rebuilt by architect Vincent Rawskyi Sr.). The museum collection consisted of natural history, ethnographic, archaeological departments and the Poturytsa Library with a natural sciences department at 4622 volumes.