Later in 1877, the French Association of Advancement in Sciences (AFAS), together with the Geological Society, held an exhibition at the former Palais de Justice, which drew attention to the growing importance of the museum.

[1] The opening ceremony was held the same year on April 24 by Gustav Lennier, who played a key role in the establishment and development of the museum.

Due to the bad condition of the remaining parts, it was decided to build an identical structure instead, and in 1965, the museum was opened to the public again in 1973.

Prior to the construction of the Palais de Justice, the space was occupied by the building that housed the police tribunal and ordinary assemblies.

[4] The staircase is in the middle and leads to large apartments used by various jurisdictions before the Palais de Justice was converted into the Natural History Museum.

At the age of 24, Lesueur was admitted as a painter to one of the expeditions to the Australian lands [5]organized by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1800–1804 and supervised by Nicolas Baudin (1754–1803).

The drawings that he created during that time show everyday life, landscapes, and local people[9] He returned to Le Havre in 1837, where he focused on studying the fossils found on the Cape de la Heve.

The paleontological collection of the museum consists of 64,413 specimens, demonstrating the development of fauna starting with the first types of multicellular organisms.

The majority of the specimens exhibited at the museum are of Norman origin (including 155 million-year-old fossils of dinosaurs and marine reptiles found at the Cape de la Heve).

The objects from Africa exhibited at the museum reflect the commercial, maritime, military, and colonial history of France and Le Havre in particular.

They include very rare and valuable types such as lazurite from Morocco, pink rhodochrosite from Argentina, black tourmaline from Madagascar, and green autunite from Haute Vienne.

The archaeological collection (12 240 samples) of the museum comprises various objects that were found in Normandy and supposedly date back to the Neolithic age between 6000 and 2000 BC.

Thus, in order to restore the collections, the Natural History Museum of Le Havre established partnerships with such organizations as CERZA, BIOTROPICA, and BIOPARK Oceanopolis.