The museum is situated in the Aarhus University campus in the district Midtbyen, but also operates a field laboratory and education centre, the Molslaboratoriet, in Mols Bjerge National Park on Djursland.

[1] The museum conducts research in a number of areas with focus on entomology, freshwater ecology, earth biology, fauna and bioacoustics.

In 1850 the members of the organization behind the museum had all left the city and the collection was taken over by the cathedral school and possibly donated to the Natural History Society for Jutland at some later point.

The university did not initially have a faculty for the natural sciences so the museum was established with its own scientific department so interested scientists could have a laboratory to work in.

[2] The museum have extensive collections of mammals, birds, skeletons, animal tracks, springtails, mollusks and corral.