NHM Library and Archives
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nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
NHM Library and Archives
@nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
14K followers 1K following 240 posts
One of the finest collections of natural history literature, art and online resources.

Come and research with us Tuesday - Thursday 10.00 - 16.00 (by appointment).

linktr.ee/nhmlibraryarchives

(Natural History Museum, London and Tring)
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nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Feb 20
Become a member of our Library and Archives and use our Reading Room.

Gain access to:
✔️A wide range of online resources.
✔️A world leading collection of printed books, journals, unique manuscripts, artwork and archives.

✔️ L&A membership is free.

Learn more buff.ly/412DnR7.
#NaturalHistoryMuseum
A photograph of items sitting on a table in the Library and Archives Reading room. In the foreground, a table with a laptop, a small pile of books and journals and open modern book showing images of butterflies. On the right is an open bound manuscript, with colour illustrations of caterpillars. It is resting on foam supports. In the background are wall to wall book shelves, a seated life sized model of Charles Darwin and computers on desks.
Reposted by NHM Library and Archives
sochistnathist.bsky.social
🚨We have a SUPER exciting announcement!🚨

Our next Summer Meeting will be at @zslofficial.bsky.social on the theme of The Zoological Society of London at 200: Science, Society, and the Natural World 🥳

📅1-3 July 2026
🗺️Zoological Society of London

Find out how to submit 👇🏻
shnh.org.uk/all-events/c...
Dark green background with white text overlaid reading "call for papers", surrounded by various natural history illustrations of animals wearing party hats.
December 5, 2025 at 8:44 PM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
In today's #NHMAdventCalendar of Library and Archives art: 6. Grey-headed flying fox for John Gould’s Mammals of Australia (1845-63). Did you know... #AdventCalendar2025 #Christmas #SpecialCollections #Art #NaturalHistoryMuseum
Alt text: advent calendar revealing two bats in a tree.
December 6, 2025 at 9:01 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
We've put together a 25-day #NHMAdventCalendar of Library and Archives art. Enjoy! 5. Mandrake, from De Materia Medica (produced 1458-1477). Did you know… #AdventCalendar2025 #Christmas #SpecialCollections #Art #NaturalHistoryMuseum
Alt text: an advent calendar revealing a mandrake.
December 5, 2025 at 9:02 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
14,000 followers 🎉🎉

Thank you so much!
#SharingTheWonder #CreatingAdvocatesForThePlanet
December 4, 2025 at 1:08 PM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
We've put together a 25-day #NHMAdventCalendar of Library and Archives art. Enjoy! 4. Octopus, Port Jackson Painter (active 1790s). Did you know… #AdventCalendar2025 #Christmas #SpecialCollections #Art #NaturalHistoryMuseum
Alt text: an advent calendar revealing a white octopus from below.
December 4, 2025 at 9:01 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
We've put together a 25-day advent calendar showcasing Library and Archives collections. Enjoy! 3. Dombeya excelsa, Ferdinand Bauer (drawn 1790-1807). Did you know… #adventcalendar #Christmas #SpecialCollections #Art #NaturalHistoryMuseum
Alt text: An advent calender revealing a fir tree frond
December 3, 2025 at 9:02 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
We've put together a 25-day advent calendar showcasing Library and Archives collections. Enjoy! 2. Red and Yellow Maccaw (Macrocercus aracanga), Edward Lear (publ. 1832). Did you know... #adventcalendar #Christmas #SpecialCollections #Art #NaturalHistoryMuseum Alt text: a red and green parrot
December 2, 2025 at 9:01 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
If you're looking for Christmas present ideas, there are plenty in the Museum shop -- including many which use the Library and Archives collections!

Lots of ideas for the nature lover, artist or book worm in your life.
#NaturalHistoryMuseum #Archives #Christmas #SpecialCollections #EntomologicalArt
A display of mugs, books, boxes and tins. A display of four books.
December 1, 2025 at 12:02 PM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
We've put together a 25-day advent calendar showcasing Library and Archives collections. Enjoy! 1. 'Snowy Owls’, John James Audubon (publ. 1827-1838). Did you know... #adventcalendar #Christmas #SpecialCollections #Art #NaturalHistoryMuseum #BirdsInArt
Alt text: an advent calendar, with 2 white owls
December 1, 2025 at 9:01 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
Can you help make our December?? 🎁🎄🎉

We are a smidgen away from 14,000 followers, please share and help us get there ready for the big HO HO HO!

#NaturalHistoryMusuem #Library #Archives #Art #SpecialCollections #MuseumArchives #MuseumLibrary #Nature #NaturalHistory #Books #Science
a blue background with the words happy december written on it
ALT: a blue background with the words happy december written on it
media.tenor.com
December 1, 2025 at 8:55 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
Moustachioed #NaturalHistoryMuseum messenger Ashton John Jones, photographed by Sir J. Benjamin Stone (1838 - 1914) in the colonnade at the back of the Waterhouse Building (1907).

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #Movember2025 #MuseumArchives
A man stands proudly upright in his smart uniform. It has two rows of buttons down the front of the jacket, with details on the cuffs and collar. Behind him is a bricked building.
November 28, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by NHM Library and Archives
s-pooley.bsky.social
I'm delighted to be joining Kathryn Rooke and the @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social team to talk about their #okapi materials on 5 December. This show will be open 10-16:00, and I'll be on the okapi table at 10-11:00 and 12:00-13:00. Hope to see you there
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · 10d
Visitors to the Museum will have the exciting opportunity to enter our beautiful Earth Sciences Library.

A rare occasion to see treasures from the collection and learn about the Museum’s work as shown through the collections we care for.

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #SpecialCollections #MuseumArchives
An event advert. The image is a mash up of five images including artwork, a photograph and sketch. The wording reads: Library & Archives Open Day, free, 5 December 2025 10.00 - 16.00. Location: Lasting Impressions Gallery (Red Zone).
November 27, 2025 at 10:38 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
Visitors to the Museum will have the exciting opportunity to enter our beautiful Earth Sciences Library.

A rare occasion to see treasures from the collection and learn about the Museum’s work as shown through the collections we care for.

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #SpecialCollections #MuseumArchives
An event advert. The image is a mash up of five images including artwork, a photograph and sketch. The wording reads: Library & Archives Open Day, free, 5 December 2025 10.00 - 16.00. Location: Lasting Impressions Gallery (Red Zone).
November 27, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by NHM Library and Archives
curioustravellers.bsky.social
A conference report for our exhilarating 'Curious Collections' day at the Natural History Museum (@nhm-london.bsky.social)

curioustravellers.ac.uk/conference-r...
A man in a grey jacket points at antique books as a crowd looks on with interest A large serrated fossil shark's tooth rests on the palm of a hand, almost filling it
November 26, 2025 at 6:02 PM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
A pencil moustache and a penchant for insects in L.M. Budgen’s Episodes of insect life (London: Reeve, Benham & Reeve, 1849)

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #Movember2025 #SpecialCollections
A print of a man with moustache and nightcap eating locusts from a platter.
November 24, 2025 at 1:55 PM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
Some of our colleagues have displayed classic #FOMO behaviour and joined in with Brian Houghton-Hodgson (1801-1894), an early expert on the fauna of India and Nepal, where he lived for many years.

Today, he graces our public reading room in South Kensington. #NaturalHistoryMuseum #Movember2025
Two men holding up pretend moustaches pose either side of a marble bust of Brian Houghton-Hodgson (1801-1894).
November 21, 2025 at 10:38 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
From opening day in 1881 until 1971, Natural History Museum staff included fireman warders who patrolled the buildings and grounds day and night.

Moustaches encouraged, but not compulsory.

#Movember2025 #NaturalHistoryMuseum #MuseumArchives
A black and white photo showing a group of sixteen men gathered outside on grass, wearing matching plain dark uniforms and caps. They are in three rows, those at the back are standing, the middle sit on chairs and the front sit on the ground. A hose pipe snakes on the ground between them to the man on the far right who stands holding the nozzle as water shoots out of it.
November 19, 2025 at 10:52 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
Here is an extra reason to visit the Treasures Gallery (free entry).

We've just changed the hand-coloured engraved plate from our copy of John James Audubon's 'The Birds of America' (1827-1838).

Plate 197: Loxia curvirostra / Red Crossbill.

On display until February 2026.
#NaturalHistoryMuseum
A person places a mounted piece of original artwork into a glass case in a gallery space.
November 14, 2025 at 9:33 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
The Library and Archives are closed to external visitors and enquiries 10 - 14 November.

Our team are auditing the collections and having a whale of a time…🐋

#Audit #MuseumLibrary #MuseumArchives #ModernCollections #SpecialCollections #Teamwork
November 11, 2025 at 6:54 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
We are at #HistDay25 @instituteofhistoricalresearch.

Come and chat with our team - Kathryn, Heather and Eloise. We would love to support your research and hear about all the subjects you are interested in!
November 4, 2025 at 12:19 PM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
The books on our shelves tell the history of publishing as well as the history of natural history. We love these three Pelican books, held in our Zoology Library, Penguin books’ second imprint after their main series first launched in 1937.

Animal camouflage (1946)
Book held in front of a bookshelf. The cover is blue and white striped, with an image of a pelican at the bottom.
October 27, 2025 at 11:30 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
What's new pussycat? Recent additions to our library book and journal collections.

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

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #ModernCollections #BookSky
Six books displayed in front of a seated statue of Charles Darwin. Nine journals related to natural history and science displayed on a table. Six journals related to natural history and science displayed on a table. Eight journals related to natural history and science displayed on a table.
October 23, 2025 at 11:31 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
Some lovely twirls and swirls from the 1781 edition of Pierre-Joseph's 'Histoire des insectes nuisibles à l'homme, aux bestiaux, à l'agriculture et au jardinage' (Paris, 1781). #MarbledMonday #MarbledPaper #SpecialCollections #BlueSkyBooks #Endpapers
A photograph of an eighteenth-century marbled paper with swirls of blue, yellow, pink and white.
October 20, 2025 at 9:38 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
A peek on the returns shelf to see some of the items Museum staff have been returning recently... 🔎📚

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #Shelfie #ModernCollections #BookSky #Palaeontology #Invertebrates #NorthAtlantic #Flora #India #Fossils #Fishes
Seven books displayed on a table in a library.
October 10, 2025 at 10:03 AM
nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social
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.
October 6, 2025 at 8:33 AM