The new building of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural is in contrast with the surrounding old, colonial buildings. It was founded with the mission to collect, to investigate, to conserve, and to exhibit natural objects to promote scientific and cultural knowledge of the nature and to raise awareness of environmental issues among the Cuban people.

It was inaugurated under the name of Museum of Sciences Felipe Poey in 1964. Felipe Poey y Aloy (1799-1891), founder of the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana, was a Cuban scientist and researcher in the field of natural sciences that had remarkable work in ichthyology (the branch of zoology that deals with fishes). In 1986, the institution was reorganized substantially, receiving the name of the National Museum of Natural History, but it was still insufficient to adapt to the functional requirements of a modern cultural institution, so that in 1990, the museum moved to the current building in Plaza de Armas that was US Embassy building in the 1930s. 

Currently, the museum has three permanent exhibition areas on the ground floor, beside the temporary ones with different themes: inside of the museum; room for the mammals, the birds and the reptiles from other parts of the world; and room of the history of the earth and the life. The upper floor is reserved for the samples of the Cuban nature. 

A diorama at the entrance demonstrates the work of the scientists on the expedition of the natural life. In the room where the mammals, the birds and the reptiles from different geographical areas of the world are exhibited, the stuffed animals are divided according to their regions where they live. A brief tour, accompanied by the light and sound effects, makes the museum more interesting, particularly for the children. The room of the history of the earth and the life offers a general overview to the evolution of our planet until the emergence of the human species. In the exhibition hall of the Cuban nature the original animals from the island, as well as the fossils of already distinguished plants and animals that once lived in the Caribbean region, are exhibited. The prehistoric manjuarí fish (Cuban gar), iguanas and the fruit bats are the objects that draw attention of the majority of the visitors. 

The institution owns more than 64 thousand samples in its collection, but the visitors can see only about 1.000 of them. The museum preserves also a collection of Cuban fish plates, painted by Otto Siepermann, that comprise also the fishes of the Atlantic coast of tropical America. 

The museum has a Children's Room called Colibrí (hummingbird), where educational workshops are held for children, a video room called Almiquí (solenodon), with audiovisual materials and a library (Biblioteca de Miguel L. Jaume) with more than 3.000 books and serials, and more than 3.000 reprints of articles. Miguel Luis Jaume Garcia was a Cuban malacologist (malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the mollusca). A sales office where you can buy some CD’s and books about the world of animals in Cuba, such as the amphibians, bats etc., is at the ground floor.