Collections
Collections and curation
The Museum is home to the largest and most important natural history collection in the world, with over 70 million specimens ranging from microscopic slides to mammoth skeletons. It also offers an array of educational, electronic and exhibition resources. All these items are organised into 'collections', which can be defined as groups of items that have something in common.
Our scientific activities revolve around the remarkable collections we look after, which represent the diversity of the natural world, past and present, and have been gathered over the last 400 years. Through them we gain knowledge of the animals and plants with which we share the planet and also of the processes that have shaped the world around us and our solar system.
Use of the collections is promoted to further knowledge of the natural world through loans, visits and collaborative projects, as well as supporting the Museum's own research programme.
Online collections
The Museum is continually adding to its online collection databases.
Search for an online collection
Search the Mineralogy specimen database
Library collections
Alongside the specimen collection is a developing library with over 1 million books, 20,000 scientific journals and 500,000 works of art. It can justifiably be described as the best natural history library in the world.
Collections management
Collections management is an academic and practical discipline that enables staff to apply the highest standards in the curation, conservation and enhancement of the Museum’s collections and to develop electronic resources to increase access to the information they contain.
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Departmental collections
Information about each of our departmental collections, including Museum treasures that are available for loan.
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Collections management: consulting
Museum staff have unrivalled skills and experience in curation, museology and collections management.
Collections management seminars
The Collections Management Committee hold specialist talks in the Museum's Flett Theatre for interest to the collections management community. Museum professionals from other museums, universities, institutions and societies are welcome to attend.