Collectors and scientists
The Museum collections are built on the efforts of natural historians, many of whom dedicated their lives to the pursuit of scientific knowledge.
Some worked from the comfort of their study room, while others ventured into the field at home and abroad.
Their personal accounts of scientific observation and discovery complement our vast specimen collections, and give an insight into what it was like to pioneer new scientific theories.
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Meet the collectors
Find out more about the naturalists represented in our Library collections.
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Introducing taxonomy
The system of formal organisation for the natural world developed by Carl Linnaeus.
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A cathedral to nature
Richard Owen's fight to build a dedicated natural history museum in South Kensington.
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Forgeries and science
The case of the Piltdown Man, a hoax that fooled the scientific community for forty years.
