Ardito Desio and the Libyan Museum of Natural History
Ardito Desio (1897-2001), in order to pursue his exploratory and scientific activities in Libya in the 1920’s and 30’s, needed a base from which to work and, at the same time, a place where the finds collected could be conserved, analysed, studied and displayed to the public. The obvious solution, with the full backing of the governor of Libya, Italo Balbo (1934-1940), was to create a museum. Thus, in the 1936, the Libyan Museum of Natural History was founded in Tripoli. The documents conserved in the Historical Archive “Ardito Desio” (now in the Friulan Museum of Natural History in Udine) tell the story not only of the museum - which was directed by Italians until 1965, always under the guidance of Desio himself - but also of an important period in Libya’s history, from the 1930’s to the end of the 1960’s.
Parole chiave/Keywords: Museo Libico di Storia Naturale, Libia, Ardito Desio, Italo Balbo, Annali del Museo Libico di Storia Naturale, ricerche petrolifere. Libyan Museum of Natural History, Libya, Ardito Desio, Italo Balbo, Annali del Museo Libico di Storia Naturale, oil surveys.
