In the Gallery, which at the time allowed access to the Botanical Garden from Via Santa Maria, portraits of illustrious botanists and collections of naturalistic exhibits began to accumulate from 1591 onwards. These were the first nuclei of what would later become the present Botanical Museum and, with regard to geological and zoological exhibits, the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa in Calci. Today's Botanical Museum is located in the premises of the old foundry, also known as the "Palazzo delle Conchiglie" (Palace of Shells) for its façade entirely decorated in grotesque style in 1752. The museum preserves the Picture Gallery, the monumental doorway of the entrance to the gallery, the ancient "Studiolo" for the seeds of the Botanical Garden, as well as objects related to the teaching of university botany, including valuable wax and plaster models and teaching tables.