The Natural History Museum is a world-class scientific institution, with one of the largest and oldest natural history collections in the world. The South Kensington site is the best known of the Museum’s ’s locations, an iconic example of nineteenth-century neo-Gothic architecture, but the Natural History Museum also has a site at Tring, which was the private museum of Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild. The Natural History Museum became separate from the British Museum in 1881, when the South Kensington site was ready. The Natural History Museum now caretakes over 80 million natural history specimens and extensive library and archival collections and has world-class laboratories for the scientific study of objects and best methods for their care and conservation.

The Natural History Museum’s research is organised into themes which provide a strategic focus for our work and help us to communicate how the Museum addresses the climate and biodiversity crises. Our staff and students, often in collaboration with universities, are working on all aspects of our global and historical collections to provide solutions from and for nature. The Natural History Museums research is also built into the museum’s programme of inspiring public engagement, developing environmental advocacy with national, international and online audiences.

Image: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London