Natural History Museum Library

Natural History Museum Library
Name	Natural History Museum Library
Location	South Kensington, London
Established	1881
Type	Research library
Collection size	Over 3 million items
Director	Keeper of the Library and Archives
Website	Official site

Contents

Natural History Museum Library The Natural History Museum Library is a major specialist research library associated with the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London. It supports scholarship in Charles Darwin studies, Alfred Russel Wallace research, and collections-based work linked to the British Museum (Natural History), the Royal Society, and international partners such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. The library's holdings underpin exhibitions and scientific output connected to institutions like the Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

History

The library traces its institutional origins to the 19th-century collections formed under figures associated with Sir Richard Owen, Joseph Dalton Hooker, and Sir William Henry Flower. Early cataloguing was influenced by policies at the British Museum and by exchanges with the Linnean Society of London and the Zoological Society of London. The transfer of museum departments following the 1881 reorganisation aligns with developments at Kensington Gardens and the expansion of the South Kensington Museum complex. During the 20th century the library adapted through events including the impacts of World War I and World War II, collaborations with the Royal Air Force for wartime preservation, and postwar loans to the Natural History Museum, Vienna and the National Museums Scotland. Directors and curators have liaised with figures from the Palaeontographical Society, the Geological Society of London, and the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

The collections comprise historic monographs, periodicals, manuscripts, and archives related to paleontology and specimen-based disciplines connected to personalities like Mary Anning, Thomas Henry Huxley, and Ernst Haeckel. Holdings include original plates and manuscripts by Charles Darwin, correspondence involving Gregor Mendel, and expedition journals from voyages such as those of HMS Challenger and the Beagle. Major named collections derive from donors and collectors including Owen, Hooker, John Gould, Edward Lear, Alfred Newton, and Francis Darwin. The library maintains extensive serials like the Journal of Zoology, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and titles from the Royal Geographical Society. Special collections incorporate works by illustrators and naturalists such as John James Audubon, Alexander von Humboldt, Georges Cuvier, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, and Carl Linnaeus. It holds maps and atlases tied to James Cook voyages, field notebooks from Joseph Banks, and catalogs connected with the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin and the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Genève.

The reading rooms and enquiry services serve researchers from institutions including University College London, the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge. Reference staff liaise with curators from the Entomological Society of London, the Palaeontological Association, and the British Entomological and Natural History Society. Facilities support inter-library loans with the Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitisation projects with the Wellcome Trust, and cooperative conservation with the National Archives (United Kingdom). The library provides specialist catalogues that integrate with databases such as those maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and supports loan requests for exhibitions at venues like the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County and the Field Museum.

Scholarly activity linked to the library underpins monographs and articles in journals such as Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Staff and visiting researchers contribute to publications from the Palaeontographical Society, the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, and the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. The library curates bibliographies and catalogues used by projects at the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Royal Society Publishing, and the Oxford University Press. Collaborative research has involved partnerships with the Natural History Museum, Paris, the Berlin Museum für Naturkunde, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, resulting in exhibition catalogues and conservation reports for collections linked to HMS Beagle material, Victorian era plate production, and taxonomy histories associated with Carl Linnaeus and George Cuvier.

Conservation programmes have worked with conservators from the British Library and the National Trust on bookbinding, paper repair, and plate preservation for fragile works like those by Edward Lear and John James Audubon. Digital initiatives include mass digitisation partnerships with the Biodiversity Heritage Library, scanning collaborations with the Wellcome Trust, and metadata projects supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The library has contributed digitised primary sources to datasets used by researchers at the Natural History Museum, Vienna, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Atlas of Living Australia, enabling remote access to items linked to expeditions by James Cook, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Russel Wallace.

Public access and outreach programmes include exhibitions coordinated with the Natural History Museum galleries, loans to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and talks in partnership with the Royal Society and the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Education and outreach connect with schools via links to the National Curriculum (England), museum learning teams, and projects with the Science Museum Group. Outreach extends through online catalogues interoperable with the Europeana Collections, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and the Digital Public Library of America, and through collaborations with community organisations like the London Wildlife Trust and the Friends of the Natural History Museum Library.

Category:Libraries in London Category:Natural history libraries