Museum history

Take a virtual tour of the Natural History Museum and explore the astonishing diversity of the natural world.

Discover the contribution of Black people to the field of natural history.

It takes time, endless patience and skill to transform a fossil into a museum-worthy exhibit. 

A new statue is joining the world’s oldest display of extinct wildlife in south London.

Our South Asian scientists share their research and their favourite specimen.

The Museum is as a finalist for the world's largest museum prize.

We're the UK's most popular indoor attraction for the second year running.

Dürer's woodcut print of a rhinoceros is as iconic as it is inaccurate. In this article we explore the legacy of this infamous artwork and how it shaped thinking on its subject for more than 200 years after its creation.

The works are part of the wider Urban Nature Project.

Over a century ago, one of the most important scientific expeditions in history departed from the UK to explore the oceans of the world. 

How we depict extinct animals has changed significantly over time, as artists keep up with the latest scientific discoveries.

John James Audubon was a self-taught ornithologist and artist. He was also a contradictory figure.

Dippy the Diplodocus is coming home to the Museum after a tour that saw them meet over two million new friends around the UK.

Gilbert White's talent and passion for observing and recording nature inspired many future naturalists, including Charles Darwin.

Who is looking after the collections while the Museum is in lockdown?

Ecologist Sylvia Myers introduces some of our favourite finds and how we monitor the plants and animals present.

They aren't scientifically accurate, but the Crystal Palace dinosaurs have a special place in the history of palaeontology.

Adventuring unchaperoned in seventeenth century Suriname, Maria Sibylla Merian blazed a trail for women and science.

Female specimens are under represented in collections.

This charismatic Polynesian turned Cook's first voyage into his own ceremonial tour.

Explore a menagerie of designs fit for a 'cathedral to nature'.

The Museum cares for the only piece of Apollo 17 Moon rock gifted to the UK, but our connection with NASA's missions goes back to Apollo 11.

How these institutions now engage with their history is crucial in how they move forward.

Meet eighteenth-century naturalist and collector Sir Joseph Banks.

A statue of the Victorian sex symbol was displayed at the Museum.

A volume of historical bird illustrations has joined the Museum collections.

Although spinosaurs were named in 1915, little was known about these giants until a 31-centimetre-long claw was discovered in the UK in 1983.

This long-necked skeleton is Attenborosaurus, an extinct marine reptile named after legendary broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

When Patrick started caring for the Museum's fish specimens, he became one of the institution's first black curators.

During the Second World War a number of galleries were commandeered by British spy networks. Explore the secret wartime history of the Museum, in photographs.

Though visitors can spot his namesake on the iconic gilded ceiling of our Hintze Hall, few will have heard of Graman Kwasimukambe.

Explore research into how our history and collections are connected to the transatlantic slave trade.

Discover John James Audubon's iconic and valuable book The Birds of America.

New rooms for Members and Patrons of the Museum have been named in celebration of palaeontologist Mary Anning.

Meet the Swedish botanist who ventured around the world on Captain Cook's pivotal first voyage.

Discover rarely displayed illustrations and specimens from Captain Cook's first voyage.

Did you know the word 'dinosaur' wasn't coined until 1842? 

The adventures of a tenacious female explorer brought to life by comic artist Sammy Borras.

Museum archivist Laura Brown offers a peek behind-the-scenes at the Museum from 1912 to 1914, when suffragists were fighting for the vote.

Meet the first person to illustrate a book with photographic images.

Brachiopod curator Zoë Hughes celebrates the life and work of one of the Museum's great pioneering geologists.

Whether liaising with cannibals or escaping giant spider webs, Cheesman took the challenges of perilous fieldwork - and patriarchal views - in her stride.

Meet the trailblazer who was one of the first women employed as a scientist by the Museum.

Brimming with enthusiasm for the natural world, even Charles Darwin didn't always get it right.

Dippy the Diplodocus skeleton has been installed in Dorset, the first stop of a UK-wide tour.

Charles Robert Darwin transformed the way we understand the natural world with ideas that, in his day, were nothing short of revolutionary.

The story of Dippy the Diplodocus stretches back more than 100 years. Take a look at some memorable moments in pictures.

A television documentary will follow Museum scientists as they help deduce the astonishing facial appearance of Britain's oldest complete skeleton, Cheddar Man.

Ferdinand Bauer is regarded as one of the world's greatest natural history painters, and now his work is uniquely brought together for the first time.

A feature film is to be made about the fossil hunter from Dorset.

Museum scientist Dorothea Bate now has a blue plaque to honour her contributions to the field of palaeontology.

Discover how Iguanodon's true identity was finally revealed.

The Museum's spectacular new central space will reopen on 14 July - and visitors can win an exclusive tour and be the first to experience it.

These popular dinosaur reconstructions from the 1960s are no longer scientifically accurate. Can you spot the errors?

For more than 300 years, Britain's wildlife has captivated scientists and artists alike.

Resin deer lungs, a warthog and a pterosaur fossil are just a few of the curious specimens to be found in the new Hintze Hall. 

Discover how crumpled newspapers have turned a blue whale skeleton into a historical treasure trove.

Find out how new developments will build on the Museum's history as an index of the natural world.

Lorraine Cornish, Head of Conservation, prepares to dismantle the Diplodocus skeleton.

The Museum's Library and Archives has digitised its oldest book, Historia Naturalis, to mark the tenth anniversary of the Biodiversity Heritage Library.