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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 2d

This book from our Ornithology Library collection seems very fitting as birds migrate from the UK to warmer climes.

The travels of Birds (1916) by Frank M. Chapman.

⬆️Learn more about our collections and how to visit us via the link in our bio.

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #ModernCollections #Shelfie

A book held in front of a bookshelf. The front cover of the book shows an illustration of a coast line, low sun and V formation of a flock of birds.

A book held open in front of a bookshelf. The title page and page opposite are illustrated with black and white drawings of flocks of birds.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 5d

Go behind the scenes of Walter Rothschild’s research library and personal book collection.
Librarian Cat O’Carroll will showcase natural history treasures from the 16th-20th centuries, including rare books, early photography and original artworks.
#NHMTring #SciArt #NatureInArt #ZoologicalArt

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 6d

#OTD in 1975 our departmental libraries were formally centralised with the creation of a Department of Library Services.

Today our team continue to support the work of all our Museum staff and in the provision of a service to external visitors wanting to engage with our collections.

A sepia photograph showing an old library with high shelves up against the walls and a ladder leading to an upper walkway.

A black and white photograph showing a library reading room with two staff sitting at a large information enquiry desk in the centre. People can be seen sitting at desks around the bookshelves.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 9d

Because even stationery has the right to be lovely, here are two well-loved little notebooks from entomologist and silversmith Dru Drury (1725-1804). #NaturalHistoryMuseum #MarbledMonday #BlankBooks #Bookbinding #MarbledPaper #SpecialCollections #BlueSkyBooks

Two small eighteenth-century notebooks in covers of marbled paper. Each notebook has a black-edged label on the front cover, with a library label of SB o D1a at the left edge.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 13d

Why didn't *we* think of taking our "luncheon hour" at the end of the day, like Attendant Parker? #OpportunitiesMissed #ThrowbackThursday #NaturalHistoryMuseum

Cropped image of handwritten letterbook entry dated 10 May 1881. The letter, from Edw. A. Bond to William Carruthers, concerns the conduct of Senior Attendant Parker, who has been taking liberties with the timing of his lunch hour.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 20d

From 1881 until 1971, firemen warders patrolled NHM buildings and grounds day and night. The Chief Officer of the London Fire Brigade made regular inspections of the equipment, which were recorded in a logbook. #MuseumArchives #ArchivesOfInstagram #NaturalHistoryMuseum #ThrowbackThursday

A black and white photograph of a group of 16 Victorian firemen posed in three rows. All men are in buttoned uniforms and wear a cap. The man on the furthest right holds a gushing fire hose.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 21d

Library & Archives Open Day (free)
19 September 2025

When: 10.00 - 16.00
Where: Lasting Impressions Gallery (red zone)

Our team have developed four themed displays:
🐋 Whales, science and conservation
🌱 Ordering and naming nature
✏️ Writing from the field
❄️ Polar expeditions

#NaturalHistoryMuseum

Photo of a group of people gathered around a table which is displaying artwork and photos.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 23d

Dunk, turn, dunk, turn, dunk…If you're doing one textblock, why not do eight? G.A. Olivier's Entomologie (Paris 1789-1808). #MarbledMonday #MarbledPaper #SpecialCollections #BlueSkyBooks

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 26d

Library & Archives Open Day (free)
19 September 2025

When: 10.00 - 16.00
Where: Lasting Impressions Gallery (red zone)

Our team have developed four themed displays:
🐋 Whales, science and conservation
🌱 Ordering and naming nature
✏️ Writing from the field
❄️ Polar expeditions

#NaturalHistoryMuseum

Image of people standing round a table displaying library and archives material

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 26d

Ah, but could he beat that moustache?

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 26d

For #ThrowbackThursday, we thought we'd share this, uh, intriguing picture of ornithologist and former Director of Tring Museum, Ernst Hartert (1859-1933). #Birds #Ornithology #MuseumArchives @nhm_tring

Sepia-tinted photograph of a man in late-Victorian dress. The man has a large moustache. He is pictured with a table of taxidermied animals including birds, one of which he is touching.

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Reposted by NHM Library and Archives

Andrea Hart @andreahart.bsky.social · 28d

Delighted to have come across this lovely book for a patron visit - Isabella Sinclair’s Indigenous Flowers of the #Hawaiian Islands (1855). The first book published with colour images of Hawaiian flowering plants. A great blog here blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2019/03/isab... #rarebooks #flowers

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Reposted by NHM Library and Archives

Andrea Hart @andreahart.bsky.social · 27d

For anyone needing a little lift today, here’s a link to the botanical drawing #master that is Georg Ehret (1708-1770) and some of his watercolours held by nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social all freely available to view and make you #smile nhm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fu... #botanicalart

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Sep 4

Photographs in the museum archives show club members engaged in various activities, from constructing dioramas to sketching specimens.

Do you have memories of visiting the Museum as a child?

#EYAEducation #NaturalHistoryMuseum #MuseumArchives #ThrowbackThursday

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Sep 4

With children across the country heading #BacktoSchool, school visits to the Museum will soon be back in full swing.

These visits were kickstarted by Jacqueline Palmer’s Children’s Centre in the 1950s which hosted school groups and the Museum’s own club for young naturalists.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Aug 29

Mycologist Arthur Peck (1870-1940) was such a fun guy (sorry, not sorry) we've added his 150+ images of British fungi to our Digitised Special Collections buff.ly/DwrpsMW. #NaturalHistoryMuseum #SpecialCollections #NatureInArt #Photography #SciArt #Mushrooms
Alt text: Reel of sepia photos of fungi

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Aug 25

We've digitised 155 African sketches of Thomas Baines (1820-1875). ⬆️ Use the link in our bio to explore this collection and many others. #NaturalHistoryMuseum #LibrariesOfInstagram #DigitisedCollections #SpecialCollections #Art #NatureInArt #Africa
Alt text: Watercolours of Southeast Africa.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Aug 21

Our collections are full of surprises. This manuscript is a medical herbal. But there a monster be… #FolkloreThursday #NaturalHistoryMuseum #Manuscripts #SeaMonsters #SpecialCollections #ZoologicalArt #Monsters #BlueSkyBooks

Alt text: Reel of an early herbal with a drawing of a sea monster.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Aug 19

⬆️ If you would like to visit our Public Reading Room or learn more about our collections, please use the link in our bio.

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #SpecialCollections #Ephemera #PostageStamps #NatureInArt #ZoologicalArt #EntomologicalArt #BotanicalArt #Art #SciArt

Stamps depicting animals and plants displayed in groups on paper.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Aug 19

Our new temporary display shows off some of our wonderful stamp collection in our Reading Room display case.

Our small but varied collection of postage stamps contains several thousand from around the world. Many have been acquired through donation; all are subject-relevant and in mint condition.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Aug 15

Recent additions to our library collections.

⬆️Learn more about our collections and how to visit us via the link in our bio.

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #ModernCollections

Eight books and journals related to natural history, display on a table.

Six journals related to natural history, display on a table.

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Reposted by NHM Library and Archives

Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · Aug 9

Surely one of the most exquisite zoological publications of the nineteenth century: Richard Owen's Monograph on the Aye-Aye (1863), with plates drawn by Joseph Wolf and lithographed by James Erxleben. Also a key statement of Owen's conception of evolution. (The @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social copy.)

Large fold-out plate of the whole aye-aye.

The aye-aye's distinctive spindly digits.

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Reposted by NHM Library and Archives

Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · Aug 8

Thomas Hawkins's colossal book Memoirs of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri (1834), 2nd edn, with pencil for scale. Trust Hawkins to quote himself in the epigraph. Richard Owen's copy in the @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social.

A gigantic book. Frontispiece and title page. The former is a lithograph depicting a plesiosaur- and ichthyosaur-haunted seashore.

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Aug 8

The Museum's 1974 exhibition "British Birds by British Artists" was a celebration of British birds. These postcards of a butcher bird and fulmar, produced to accompany the exhibition, are two of fifty now in our Archives. #NaturalHistoryMuseum #BritishBirds #Ephemera #NatureInArt #MuseumArchives

Postcard of a pair of Red Backed Shrikes held up on the stairs of Hintze Hall

Postcard of a Fulmar held up on the stairs of Hintze Hall

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NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Aug 7

www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/...

Using the Library and Archives | Natural History Museum

Find out how to access the Museum’s Library and Archives services and resources.

www.nhm.ac.uk

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