Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences

The Museum of Human Sciences, formerly known as Queen Victoria Museum was opened in 1903.Then it was a museum and public library built in tribute to the Queen of England. The first sixty years of its existence saw the museum shifting its location three times. The present museum, located in the Civic Centre of the capital city of Zimbabwe, Harare, was opened in 1964.

At independence in 1980, National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ), an organization born in 1972 to manage all national museums and Monuments in the country, adopted a policy of decentralization. The move was to promote efficiency in operations and facilitate quick delivery of services to the once marginalized majority of Zimbabweans. The five major national museums, evenly distributed in the country, became epicenter of museum work in the five regions that cater for the entire country. Within this framework the museum in the capital city was tasked with the responsibility for satisfying the national needs in the area of human sciences. Consequently archeology and ethnography asserted themselves as the main research disciplines at this museum. To date the thrust of the museum has been Stone Age and Iron Age studies, studies of the culture and history of the people of Zimbabwe, rock art and the preservation of historical Monuments.