The Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie was a museum of geological and mineralogical collections. Up to 1878, geological and mineralogical collections formed part of Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, the National Museum of Natural History. This museum, founded in 1820 and established at Leiden, was closely linked with the University there. One of the staff members used to be in charge of the geological collections. In 1893 the collection was moved into a new building at the Van der Werffpark/Garenmarkt as the Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie, representing a great step forward. The RGM thus became completely independent and was no longer regarded as part of the Natural History Museum.