There are four particular periods within the history of Venezuelan mammalogy: (1) From the earliest chronicles of the colony to the arrival of the first naturalists, like Humboldt, who described at least five primate species with type localities within the actual territory of Venezuela; (2) The irruption of both national and resident foreign researchers (approximately 1868–1976), during which naturalism was gradually replaced with a modern taxonomy and some taxonomic syntheses were published. Although these were incomplete and based on the work of foreign taxonomists, they represented the beginnings of the sort of scientific rigor that made way for the first contingent of national mammalogists; (3) The Smithsonian Venezuelan Project (a mammal survey carried out between 1966 and 1968, and published in 1976). It provided a privileged baseline for mammalian taxonomy and distribution in Venezuela, which was of great value for the definitive consolidation of a national mammalogy; and (4) The last stage, when the main contributions to the knowledge of Venezuelan mammals came from national researchers and students. This can be dated back to the first efforts towards the foundation of the “Asociación Venezolana para el Estudio de los Mamíferos” (AsoVEM) [Venezuelan Association for the Study of Mammals], beginning in 1977. In writing this paper, we have included data from the last systematic review of the mammals deposited in Venezuelan collections, featuring more than 70,000 records of specimens.