Collections, arts and humanities
A collection of specimens from the Museum's spirit collection.
The Museum is home to 70 million specimens, collected from every region of the globe over the past 400 years.
The collections are internationally renowned as a scientific resource for
- biodiversity research
- taxonomic study of botany, entomology, zoology, mineralogy and palaeontology
curated and studied by a staff of 300 scientists.
The collections, arts and humanities
The Museum's collections also have the potential to spearhead some of the most exciting developments in humanities research in the 21st century.
Taken as a whole, these rich and diverse collections trace a wide spectrum from the
A letter from Italian herpatologist MG Perecca to British herpatologist GA Boulenger featuring an illustration of a chameleon. The letter, written on the 27 January 1906 is held in the Museum's collections.
- history of science
- history of empire
- epistemologies of observational practice to
- ontologies of data-mining
with associated
- field notes
- films
- photographs
- diaries
- drawings
- ship’s logs
- correspondence
- GIS and DNA data
The Museum specimen collections are a rich resource for investigation in fields as varied as: history, philosophy, museology, anthropology, literary studies, economics, animal studies, cultural theory and area studies relating to South Asia, Africa, China and elsewhere.