Andrea Hart

In 1735, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus published the first edition of his seminal classification work Systema naturae. In the Kingdom of Animals, Linnaeus included humans, which he divided into four varieties according to geographical origin and skin colour. Linnaeus refined his classification of humans over the next two decades, publishing a much more developed classification in the tenth edition of Systema naturae (1758). This work has had fundamental consequences in the emergence of the concept of race, and the ways in which we understand and conceptualise differences between humans.

What happens when humans are classified?

On 19 March, 6pm to 8pm, we’re launching Homo Sapiens | Classifying the Human Animal at the Society, with a panel discussion exploring Carl Linnaeus’ classification of humans and its enduring impact on ideas of race and difference.

Book now: buff.ly/frgzC9H

A watercolour drawing of branches and pine needles preserved in the Library and Archive collections at the NHM, London

Born on this day the amazing Ferdinand Bauer (1760-1826) - I remember the first time I set eyes on his original drawings of the Genus Pinus it brought tears to my eyes! Now preserved at @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social digitised and freely available to view nhm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44...

So much fun chatting with Josh and Natalie for this podcast in this brilliant #podcast series! If you like monkeys with “trousers”, blue minerals, blancmange references, pufferfish and botanical art you won’t be disappointed 🤣 #collections #art #museumcolleagues #history #lovemyjob

Very proud to have worked with @edwinrose.bsky.social and our other partners in New Zealand and at Cambridge on this. Even happier to see the fruits of Sydney Parkinson’s skill and efforts in glorious high resolution detail nhm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44... #botanicalart #collaboration

Illustration of two dragonflies, species Aeschna juncea, shown from a dorsal view with transparent wings extended. The left dragonfly has blue and brown patterned body segments and large blue eyes, while the right one features green and brown body markings with green eyes. Detailed vein structure is visible in the wings. The image is labeled "Plate XVI" and dated circa 1900 by L.U. Gill, highlighting anatomical features of British dragonflies.

🦟 British dragonflies (Odonata)
London, L.U. Gill, 1900.

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Patna's great artists: painting nature for the East India Company Discover artworks, explore venues and meet artists. Art UK is the online home for every public collection in the UK, featuring over 750,000 artworks by over 70,000 artists.

'Painters, Ports, and Profits: Artists and the East India Company, 1750-1850' is on view until 31st May at the Yale Center for British Art

🌿 Read about Patna's great artists in this new story about painting nature for the East India Company 👉 artuk.org/discover/sto...

An historic image of a school of blue flying fish soaring above waves.

💚 Thanks to our global BHL community, we reached our USD 50,000 #GiveBHLWings goal by 1 Jan 2026! These funds support BHL’s transition, staff, and infrastructure, keeping biodiversity knowledge open worldwide. Special thanks to our recurring donors. More updates soon. 🌍 📖 🧪 #BHLTransition

Thank you for writing this Andy - I’ll be sure to let Julie Harvey who took over from her as Entomology Librarian at the NHM know

The text '2025 Highlights. We’ve shared our historic collections with lots of UK and international visitors this year, from schools and universities to societies', surrounds an image of a member of the collections team showing a book to a group of visitors in our library.

Our historic collections have been seen by a huge range of collaborators and visitors from around the world this year.

Our team are always happy to provide tours for groups and clubs, or for schools and universities. Find out more at buff.ly/WZaTeR6

A Walk to London In 1819, the renowned Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray walked from Aberdeen, Scotland to London, England in order to visit the natural history collection at the British Museum. If the moder...

He beat Ehret’s walk to Leiden with his Aberdeen to London stroll … www.wellreadnaturalist.com/2021/12/a-wa...

A most wonderful and special building (not that I’m remotely biased!). The colours of the terracotta beautifully captured @bar44.bsky.social 💙

Georg Ehret 💙

We've put together a 25-day #NHMAdventCalendar of Library and Archives art. Enjoy! 11. The night-blooming Cereus, Robert John Thornton. Did you know... #AdventCalendar2025 #Christmas #SpecialCollections #Art #NaturalHistoryMuseum
Alt text: an advent calendar revealing a round orange fllower.

Detailed black-and-white illustration of the head and neck of a gigantic land tortoise labeled "Testudo microphyes." The tortoise's head is covered in large, distinct hexagonal and irregular scales, with textured, wrinkled skin along its thick neck. The eye is prominent and round, showing a glossy surface. The drawing emphasizes the rough, scaly texture and folds of the skin, highlighting the tortoise's massive size and ancient, rugged appearance. The image is part of an 1877 collection from the British Museum showcasing living and extinct giant land tortoises.

🐢 The gigantic land-tortoises (living and extinct) in the collection of the British Museum
London: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1877.

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Historical illustration of a dolphin labeled "Delphinus Orca Linn." showing a dark gray, stocky body with lighter, cream-colored underbelly. Notably, the dolphin has large, rounded pectoral fins resembling ears, a prominent dorsal fin with a jagged edge, and a tail fin. The head is exaggerated with sharp, pointed teeth and a distinctively sculpted face, including a pronounced brow ridge and a green eye. A water spout arches above the dolphin’s head, indicating its aquatic nature. The style is detailed and textured, typical of 18th-century natural history engravings.

🐬 Gemeinnüzzige Naturgeschichte des Thierreichs bd 2 plates
Berlin ;bei Gottlieb August Lange, 1780-1789.

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Yes Webster!

Lithograph print of a lemur in a tree

Sharing this lovely lithograph of a #lemur from Voeltzkow’s Säugetiere von Madagascar and Sansibar (1898). Loving its facial expression, fur detail and weird toe nail?!!? #zoologicalart

An engraving of the skeleton of an elephant

Has been a bit of a #bony day today in the collections - these two plates published in A series of engravings representing the bones of the human skeleton .. by John Barclay in 1819 perhaps being my favourites. Both engraved by E. Mitchell #rarebooks #skeletons #barebones

A unicorn watermark in one of the oldest European paper sheets. Source: https://memoryofpaper.eu/apccv/apccv.php?Signatura=1475.1

Just a 1399 unicorn watermark from a paper manufacturer from Valencia to make your day. Friends of #paperhistory know that these paper sheets of around 1400 are among the first sheets of European paper to appear on the market. European #bookhistory was a different game afterwards. #skystorians

Illustration of a lemur perched on a bare tree branch, holding onto a smaller branch with its hands and feet. The lemur has a rounded body covered in brown fur, a pale face with large, dark eyes, and small rounded ears. The tree trunk is depicted with detailed bark texture and small green leafy sprigs emerging from it. The background is plain, focusing attention on the lemur and tree. The style is a scientific, naturalist drawing from the late 18th century, showing anatomical features clearly for identification.

🦧 The naturalists' miscellany: .
London: Printed for Nodder co, 1789..

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Even more #cyanotypes from over 150 years ago by the pioneering Anna Atkins (1799-1871) - her 3 volumes of cyanotypes of British Algae created between 1843-53 preserved @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social all digitised & freely available to view nhm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44... #photography

An exhibition case of different objects

A rolled up snakeskin

A humorous display label

A herbarium sheet of the Banksia genus

“Wonder” the new #exhibition @linneansociety.bsky.social - wonder in title and wonderful in choice of objects, humour and celebration of all things natural world-
y! And what's even better is that it is
free to go see! www.linnean.org/research-col... #collections #proudtrustee #HarryStyles #science

Happy Departmental #Birthday to us! Our shelves are still happily full of wonderful books but I’m just wondering how on earth the ones on the top shelf got there or were retrieved?!? (Loving the ladder too even though a H&S nightmare … ) #libraries #books #NHM #Collections

Botanical drawing of a plant

Botanical drawing of a Cedar branch

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

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

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

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

The aye-aye at the waterside

The aye-aye's distinctive spindly digits.

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.)

The original drawing will go on display in the NHM’s Images of Nature gallery in the second rotation of Richard Owen: A Natural Legacy from January (it too, as you can imagine is rather exquisite)

Colonial world-making and global knowledges at the early modern Cape of Good Hope* Abstract. As the Cape of Good Hope was integrated into early modern colonial world-making projects, it came to be regarded as ‘the western part of the East

New on advance access: "Colonial world-making and global knowledges at the early modern Cape of Good Hope"

by @gianamar97.bsky.social‬ (@uvahumanities.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

academic.oup.com/past/advance...