The museum's oldest core collection, like all of the Florentine museums, comes from the Medici collections. The Medici collected many natural treasures like fossils, animals, minerals and exotic plants. It was Pietro Leopoldo of Lorena who acquired the buildings and who created the Natural History Museum complete with its own library. At present the museum is more of a research institute, exhibiting to the public only a small part of the collection with examples of taxidermy and the prestigious collection of anatomical wax works. The most important parts of this collection come from an exponent of Florentine wax working, Clemente Susini (1754-1814).