The Natural History Museum in Belgrade was founded on December 19, 1895, with the primary task of preserving, studying, and presenting in one place a rich treasury of objects from the field of natural sciences (paleontology, mineralogy, petrology, zoology, ichthyology, botany, entomology, etc.).

The Library of the Natural History Museum, one of the oldest scientific libraries in Serbia, was officially founded in 1903. The methods of collecting library materials in the first years of its existence were gifts, purchase of publications, and the registration of its own editions. The first books that the library received were gifts and legacies from professors and other scholars of the time. Some of the first donors to the library were: Dr. Lazar Dokić, Dr. Jovan Žujović, Dr. Sava Urošević, Dr. Dimitrije Antula.

A year after its founding, the library had 248 monographic publications and 8 serials in its collection, and today that number is far greater and includes more than 20,000 titles of monographic publications, more than 1,200 titles of serial publications and over 1,000 units of cartographic material.