Hellen Pethers

Interior of a Victorian building when it is dark outside and the interior archways and ceilings of the ground and balcony floors have been lit.

Not many people’s office is this beautiful at 0745 😊

#NaturalHistoryMuseum

Not many people’s office is this beautiful at 0745 😊

#NaturalHistoryMuseum

Foreground pastry in foil and in the background an empty wooded path with one person standing looking at the camera.

Longhorn cattle lying on the ground in a foggy field.

Misty woodland path with one person walking in the distance.

Zoomed in to the top of a real Xmas tree. At the top is a natural model of two black and white storks in a nest.

On the last day of the year I squeezed in a swim, sauna and walk round Knepp. Ending the year as I mean to go on 😍

2025 has been one of saying yes to opportunities and doing things I’d like to do even when it means on my own. Podcast live shows and intimate gigs. Loved it! Roll on 2026.

We've put together a 25-day #NHMAdventCalendar of Library and Archives art. Enjoy! 25. Iles aquifolium, Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Did you know... #AdventCalendar2025 #Christmas #SpecialCollections #Art #NaturalHistoryMuseum
Alt text: an advent calendar revealing a sprig of holly on a white background.

Simon Pooley superimposed on an illustration of two okapis, giraffid animals with striped legs.

📍 Online Lecture
📆 Jan 23, 12:30 -1:30

✨ Join Simon Pooley as he discusses the okapi, a rainforest giraffid which has become a symbol of scientific curiosity, colonial power, and conservation challenges.

Grab your free tickets here:

buff.ly/CGq6rfy

@simonmayo.bsky.social Hi just listening to your Xmas special and heart you mention the ‘dash’.

This is a well known poem that talks about this, I plan to have it at my funeral, it is so wonderful.

The Dash: Making a Difference with Your Life share.google/yFfd0emW4zSO...

Daylight photo of the outside of an old, seven storey building. Each floor has six to seven windows on it. Floors one to four has an advent number in each of the windows to turn it into a giant advent calendar.

Nighttime photo of the outside of an old, seven storey building, lit in red. Each floor has six to seven windows on it. Floors one to four has an advent number in each of the windows to turn it into a giant advent calendar.

Fortnum and Mason has turned their windows into an advent calendar. My walk today took me past in daylight and after dark. #London

A close-up of a child in a yellow shirt playing with colourful ice cubes in a tray. Text reads: “Mini Museum Explorers, 16 December” and “An icy adventure awaits” with the Natural History Museum logo.

Still time to book for the last Mini Museum Explorers of the year – and it’s going to be a festive one! Join us on Tuesday to explore the North Pole through stories, crafts, and sensory activities.

Dark green background with white text overlaid reading "call for papers", surrounded by various natural history illustrations of animals wearing party hats.

🚨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...

The National Archives are hiring a Poor Law Research Assistant (39k for 2 years) working on Paul Carter's AHRC project on poverty/welfare in Wales, 1834-1930. Deadline 16 Dec.

www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...

A low lit cosy room with antique style items on the walls. In the foreground is a display board headed ‘Goldilocks and the three bears. In the background is a tall Christmas tree lit in whites.

The corner of a white walled room. In the background is an unlit small Christmas tree and antique plates on the wall. In the foreground are three life sized models of white polar bears. One adult sized bear is standing tall on its back legs, one small bear sits on its bottom and one stands on all fours. Between them is a small table with three different sized wooden bowls placed on top.

An old stone doorway surrounded by Christmas style wreath decorations. Potted plants surround the steps leading to the doorway. Inside the entrance is a decorated tree.

A cosy low lit small room with antique style furniture and objects, and on the left is a fireplace with fake glowing hot coals. In the foreground is a small table with a clock, tea pot and two cups and saucers on it. In the background is a plinth with a single red rose under a glass dome and leaning on the floor against the wall at the back is a gold coloured large frame with and reproduction of an image of Disney’s Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

I’m new to the appreciation of National Trust at Christmas. I’m a convert! A fairytale theme at #NymansNT

We do alt text for our posts, this one went out accidentally without. As we’ve found our feet in the first year we’ve chosen to write our own to teach ourselves a new skill.

Really chuffed we have achieved this in a year (started mid Nov 2024).

It took us 10 years to achieve this on Twitter/X.

Gutted I didn’t see you!

A box of botanical themed postcards.

A display of t shirts, scarves and socks.

Are you in love with the items featuring Abraham Gottlob Werner's 'Nomenclature of colours' (1814)? Then head over to our Digitised Special Collections to see the entire work.

⬆️ Use the link in our bio to explore this collection and many others.

#SciArt #NatureInArt #ZoologicalArt #BotanicalArt

A display of mugs, books, boxes and tins.

A display of four books.

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

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

a blue background with the words happy december written on it ALT: a blue background with the words happy december written on it

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

London zoo boss quits amid claims of ‘unacceptable workplace behaviour’ Exclusive: Matthew Gould, close friend of George Osborne and former envoy, resigns before investigation concludes

"resigns before investigation concludes" is never the most encouraging of signs is it 👀
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Group of people looking at a table display of artwork and photographs, surrounded by bookshelves.

🔎Discovering the Okapi
🌍The Museum: creating advocates for the planet - the history of exhibitions and galleries at the NHM, and the way these have helped to develop a knowledge and appreciation of the natural world
🐋 Whales, Science and Conservation
🌱Ordering and Naming Nature

#Archives #Art

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).

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

A close up of the back of a World War One medal, held in the palm of a hand. The inscription is Private J Buckley.

Our family don’t have many family history objects and this medal being on a dealers website has been really bothering me. It was time to bring it back into the family fold.

So today 1/3 each is now owned by my Mum,y daughter and myself. His great, 2x great and 3x great nieces!! ❤️ #AncestryHour

A World War One medal with a red/white/blue ribbon is held by two hands.

Yesterday, 11/11 in the post came a medal I saw a year ago on a dealers website. It’s not rare or special medal.

But it’s important to me - awarded posthumously to mum’s Grt Uncle, Jabez Buckley (1886-1915), we know little about and have no photo of, he stepped off a ship in Gallipoli and died.

#Ephemera #PrintedEphemera

@tomrosenthal.bsky.social thank you another completely moving, gripping and heart warming one 😍

Yesterday at a Remembrance parade I noticed a man with a long line of medals, shedding a tear. It is your influence that made me say hello & ask him to tell me about his medals & we chatted for 15mins x

Side on photo of a large wooden omnibus on display in a museum gallery. The main body is painted dark green, with a yellow border and large wooden wheels painted yellow. It has the words ‘omnibus’ painted yellow along the side.

A selfie of a person standing in front of a large wooden omnibus. It is painted dark green, with the words ‘omnibus’ painted in large yellow letters along the side.

The rear view of a wooden omnibus with its door open and two steps leading up into it. The steps are painted yellow and the main body of the vehicle is a dark green. You can just see two seated mannequins inside.

Selfie of a person sitting inside a wooden omnibus. The interior is dark, but you can just about see a long velvety bench and mannequin of a woman dressed for the 19th century in the background.

Museums allow family historians like me to feel close to their ancestors.

My 3x great grandfather Anthony Holland Sodar (1817-99) went from driving a stage coach, to mail cart to omnibus. With little info about him, the London Transport Museum allows me to sit in a real omnibus and feel connected.

Person wearing a jumper with ‘protect the pangolins’ written on it, stands in a library behind a large bound volume of artwork on a table. The volume is open at an image of a pangolin.

When your pangolin wardrobe choice aligns with a reading room visitor requesting to see a volume of bound artwork, which includes a pangolin 😍

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #SpecialCollections #Artwork #TeamPangolin

I’m not a huge Christmas decoration person, but Festive Dippy tugged on my heart strings 😍

St Fagans: Bronze Age gold jewellery stolen from musuem Police are investigating a burglary at St Fagans museum in the early hours of Monday morning.

Awful news from Wales, the St Fagan's Museum has been broken into and prehistoric goldwork has been taken. Its painful to think what objects might now be at risk. Thoughts with the museum team who must be devastated, all speed to the police and a curse on the crooks.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Small white autumn flowering crocus.

Yellow and red flowers.

Large clump of pampas grass in the foreground, with tall trees in the background.

Close up of the tops of grasses with blue sky behind.

I love the beauty, colour and texture of autumn 🍂 ❤️
Very lucky to have Nymans National Trust next door. #NymansNT @nationaltrust.org.uk