Biodiversity Heritage Library

An historic illustration of a brown flying lizard

🐠 Help #GiveBHLWings. After nearly two decades under the Smithsonian, BHL must become independent by 1 Jan. Your donation helps us take flight and keep 500 years of biodiversity knowledge accessible. 🧪 📖 #GivingTuesday #ILoveBHL #BHLTransition 💚 Give today: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/GiveBHL...

We would have been astounded at his age if we had had all the opportunities for exploration… internet archive, biodiversity heritage library, etc. Whole volumes of ancient reference texts downloadable. .

Entomologia Terrae Novae is an unpubl. manuscript by Philip Henry Gosse (1833) on the insect fauna of Newfoundland.
The ms (which has been digitized in the Biodiversity Heritage Library) was returned to Newfoundland a few years back.See the story and the link to the book at s.si.edu/2rjaVvV

Added over 400 articles to Journal of @entsocbc.bsky.social in @biodivlibrary.bsky.social. Articles are in BioStor biostor.org/issn/0071-0733 and should appear in BHL tomorrow #bhlsunday

Three Narwhals (grey sea mammals with a long pointed tusk) diving down into a green wave.

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are called the unicorn of the sea — for obvious reasons.
This illustration by Louis A. Sargent comes from "The wild beasts of the world", v. 2 (1909), contributed to BHL by @uoftlibraries.bsky.social: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19657038 #SciArt #ILoveBHL 🧪 📖 🌊

An historic illustration of a giant anteater, a brown and black mammal with a long snout and a huge fluffy tail held high.

Happy #WorldAnteaterDay! This Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) #SciArt is by Édouard Traviès for Charles Dessalines d'Orbigny, Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle (1849). Contributed to BHL by @ncsulibraries.bsky.social: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19538021 🧪 📖 🌎 🐜 #ILoveBHL

Help the Biodiversity Heritage Library Take Flight After nearly two decades under the Smithsonian Institution, the Biodiversity Heritage Library needs to become fully independent by 1 January 2026. Help #GiveBHLWings this Giving Tuesday and support…

🌿 #GivingTuesday is coming! 💚
On 2 Dec, help us #GiveBHLWings and support the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s transition to independence by 1 January 2026. Your gift keeps biodiversity knowledge accessible for all. 🧪 📖 🌏 💸 #OpenScience #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

Scientific illustration of a magnolia flower at various stages of bloom. Shades of pink.

Glorious Magnolia campbellii. Image via @biodivlibrary.bsky.social and @wikicommons.bsky.social Created by Joseph Hooker and William H. Fitch. Public Domain commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Il...

An historic illustration of a green and brown fairy shrimp (an aquatic invertebrate) surrounded by detailed drawings of parts of the animal.

This beautiful Fairy Shrimp #SciArt is by Christine Etiennette Pernette Jurine for "Histoire des monocles qui se trouvent aux environs de Genève" (1820), authored by her father Louis Jurine. Contributed to BHL by Ernst Mayr Library Harvard www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10664230 #HerNaturalHistory

Image of submissive terrier with red and brown fur.

BHL is experiencing intermittent technical issues that are affecting PDF generation. Thank you for your patience!
@archive.org
Image: biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14994771

A page full of illustrations of many different frog species.

Mary Cynthia Dickerson was the 1st curator of herpetology at @amnh.org. She authored "The Frog Book" (1906), describing North American toads & frogs. Explore it in #BHLib thanks to the @uoftlibraries.bsky.social Robarts Library: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31830673 #HerNaturalHistory #HERpers 🐸

Two manatee (large grey sea cows) feeing on seagrass in shallow water.

November is #ManateeAwarenessMonth! This beautiful Manatee #SciArt is from Biologia Centrali-Americana (1879-1882), illustrated by Josef Wolf. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/570882 #ILoveBHL #OpenAccess #SaveTheManatee #SeaCow 🧪 🌎 📖 🌱

And this is why the global BHL community does what we do: so others can build on, use, and share 500+ years (63 million pages) of biodiversity knowledge & spectacular #SciArt. Over to you… 📖 🌏 🦆 🌱

Great Barrier Reef Anemones (1893) by William Saville-Kent, from The Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

Source: RawPixel / Biodiversity Heritage Library

https://pdimagearchive.org/images/cb31c75a-4597-4175-aaa3-bb1e925bb3e0

#biodiversity #fish #invertebrates #australia #art #publicdomain

📘 Read the announcement in the latest issue of Inoculum @msafungi.bsky.social: Mycotaxon: Announcing All Issues of Mycotaxon Have Been Digitized and are Available in BHL by Jason Karakehian, Diane Rielinger & Don Pfister. @harvard.edu @harvardlibrary.bsky.social msafungi.org/inoculum/

The title page of a journal: orange background; black text.

All issues of Mycotaxon (1974–2024) are now digitised, #OpenAccess & discoverable in BHL! Thx to the work of Diane Rielinger & BHL’s Team #RetroPIDs, every article now has a DOI, connecting 50 years of #Mycology to today’s scholarly network. #Fungi 🍄 🧪
🔗 www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography...

BHL at Living Data 2025 & GBIF Governing Board Meeting This month, members of the biodiversity community from across the globe gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, for two major meetings: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Governing Board Mee…

BHL had a strong presence at #LivingData2025 + the #GBIF #GB32 Governing Board Meeting in Bogotá 🇨🇴. We shared our transition progress, rallied support & strengthened collaborations for linked open biodiversity data. 🧪 🌎 📚 🌱🔗 Read more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/11/livi... #OpenScience

Historic illustrations of jellyfish

Historic illustrations of jellyfish

Alfred Mayor's "Medusae of the world" (1910) attempted to describe all known forms from all parts of the world. The #SciArt is based on drawings, from life, by William K. Brooks and Louis Murbach. View it in #BHLib: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography... #WorldJellyfishDay #ILoveBHL

Does anyone have an unlocked copy of Bateson (1907) “Facts limiting the theory of heredity” in Science? Apparently our subscription does not cover fresh papers from 118 years ago. Surely this is public domain by now?

An historic illustration of a group of 5 numbats (black, orange and white striped marsupials with long bushy tails).

Meet the Numbat, Australia's only truly diurnal marsupial. This beautiful #SciArt is from John Gould's "Mammals of Australia" (1863): "with its beautiful tail spread out to the full extent, it offers a great resemblance to the Squirrels". doi.org/10.5962/p.31... #InternationalNumbatDay #ILoveBHL 🧪

Donate to the Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open-access digital library of biodiversity literature and archives. BHL's future depends on the generosity of its global community. Your...

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has donated to BHL’s Fundraising Campaign so far! 💚 Your generosity will help us build an independent, sustainable future for open biodiversity knowledge. 🌿 📖 🌏 🧪
Every gift helps:
🔗 ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLDona...
#ILoveBHL #OpenAccess

I was journal manager of Canadian Field-Naturalist when we partnered with Biodiversity Heritage Library. BHL was great to work with. Make older issues freely available so they can be used. Win for authors, readers, the journal, and biodiversity knowledge. Great team at BHL!

The Biodiversity Heritage Library doesn't just provide access to historic literature. There are publications on BHL from 1469 to 2025. The Canadian Field-Naturalist is one of many in-copyright publications we've made freely accessible online (with permission from the rights holders of course). 🧪 ©️ 📖

Two gibbons (a ape) one black, one while, sitting in a tree.

#InternationalGibbonDay is dedicated to raising awareness of our overlooked, under-protected "lesser" apes. This Hainan gibbon #SciArt is from the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1905). This species is now critically endangered. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31887889 🧪 📖 🌱

An historic illustration of a kangaroo, standing on a patch of grass.

In celebration of #WorldKangarooDay 🦘, we present the first scientific description of "The Great Kanguroo, Macropus giganteus", from Shaw's The Naturalist's Miscellany (1790), which begins "the Kanguroo is a very anomalous and extraordinary quadruped". doi.org/10.5962/p.31... 🧪 📖 🌏 #ILoveBHL

Thank you! @rdmpage.bsky.social is a BHL's greatest contributor of article data (making the journal articles on BHL discoverable) & a key member of BHL's Persistent Identifier Working Group (Team #RetroPIDs, which brings the literature on BHL into the modern linked network of scholarly research) 🔗 🧪

A person presenting on a stage in front of a slide featuring text and two pages of an historic publication.

A person presenting on a stage in front of a slide featuring text and a logo.

📣 Calling all biodiversity institutions! Meise Botanic Garden is supporting the continuation of BHL by auditing/cancelling non-Open Access journal subscriptions & diverting all saved funds to BHL. Patricia Mergen encourages other institutions to do the same 🧪 🌱🌎 #LivingData2025 #OpenAccess #ILoveBHL

Screenshot of presentation with a slide giving "food for thought"

During lunch #LivingData2025 I watch presentations I've missed by attending other sessions. I don't know if others have noticed this theme, but this is at least the THIRD presentation where the challenge of access to literature has been raised. @biodivlibrary.bsky.social can help solve this.

So many of the projects shared at #LivingData2025 rely on the knowledge and data in BHL. BHL is truly the foundation of our understanding of biodiversity. Securing its future is essential. Donate now: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLDona... #ILoveBHL 🧪🌎🌱