Natural History Museum, London

The Natural History Museum traces its roots to the will of Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), a physician and prolific collector who amassed more than 71,000 items during his career, including natural history specimens and cultural artefacts from across the globe. Upon his death in 1753, Sloane's will allowed Parliament to purchase his entire collection for £20,000—well below its estimated value. This acquisition, combined with other collections, formed the basis of the British Museum, which opened in 1759. The natural history specimens remained part of the British Museum for over a century.

The impetus for a separate natural history museum came from Sir Richard Owen (1804–1892), the superintendent of the British Museum's natural history department from 1856. Owen—renowned for having coined the term 'Dinosauria' in 1842 based on Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus—argued that the ever-expanding natural history collections required their own dedicated building. He envisioned a 'cathedral to nature' that would be free and accessible to all, a progressive stance at a time when museums were largely the preserve of wealthy patrons.

In 1864, architect Francis Fowke won a competition to design the new museum, but his unexpected death a year later led to the appointment of Alfred Waterhouse. Waterhouse created an entirely new design for the South Kensington site, choosing terracotta cladding to withstand Victorian London's polluted atmosphere. Construction began in 1873, and the museum opened its doors to the public on 18 April 1881. The resulting building, in Romanesque revival style, features elaborate terracotta sculptures of animals and plants throughout—with extinct species in the east wing and living species in the west, following Owen's instructions. Every ornamental detail was sketched by Waterhouse and reviewed by museum scientists for accuracy.

The museum remained formally part of the British Museum until 1963, when it received its own independent Board of Trustees. In 1986, it absorbed the adjacent Geological Museum of the British Geological Survey and its collection of over 30,000 minerals. The institution was not officially renamed the 'Natural History Museum' until 1992—prior to this it was known as the British Museum (Natural History). The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and general admission has been free since 2001.

The NHM's 80 million specimens constitute what the institution describes as the most important natural history collection of its kind in the world. The collections are divided into five major scientific departments. The entomology collection, the oldest and largest of its kind globally, encompasses over 34 million insects and arachnids gathered over 300 years. The zoology collection holds 29 million animal specimens, rich in voucher, type, and historical specimens, including extinct and endangered species. The palaeontology collection contains approximately 7 million vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant fossils spanning geological time. The botany collection comprises an estimated 6 million specimens of bryophytes, ferns, seed plants, slime moulds, algae, lichens, and diatoms. The mineralogy collection features 500,000 rocks, gems, and minerals, including 5,000 meteorites. Additionally, the library and archives hold more than 1.5 million books, manuscripts, and artworks. Over 6 million specimens have been digitised and made accessible through the museum's open Data Portal (data.nhm.ac.uk), where records are released under CC0 or CC BY 4.0 licences.

The museum's dinosaur collection is one of the most important in the world, comprising 157 taxa, of which 115 consist of original material and 69 are type specimens. The collection was founded on the holdings of Gideon Mantell, acquired in batches in 1838 and 1853. Mantell's material from the Lower Cretaceous Wealden Group of Sussex, UK, includes Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus—two of the three taxa Owen used to define Dinosauria.

The collection spans from the Middle Triassic (approximately 240 million years ago) to the Late Cretaceous (66 million years ago) and includes material from the UK, USA, Canada, Tanzania, Romania, India, Niger, Lesotho, Morocco, and Antarctica. Key specimens include: Archaeopteryx, the iconic Late Jurassic transitional form between non-avian dinosaurs and birds, displayed in the Treasures Gallery; the holotype of Baryonyx walkeri, a spinosaur discovered in Surrey in 1983; 'Sophie', one of the most complete Stegosaurus skeletons ever found, from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, acquired in 2013 and displayed in the Earth Hall; the earliest known tyrannosauroid, Proceratosaurus bradleyi, from the Middle Jurassic of Gloucestershire; the first known specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex, whose lower jaw is displayed in the Dinosaurs gallery; and Nyasasaurus, from the Middle Triassic Manda Beds of Tanzania, the earliest known dinosaur yet described.

In June 2025, the museum unveiled Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, a newly named small ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, now displayed on the Earth Hall Mezzanine. The approximately one-metre-long specimen is the most complete named example of its kind and represents the first new dinosaur species to be placed on permanent display at the museum in over a decade.

The museum's central space, Hintze Hall, was redeveloped in 2017. The famous Diplodocus cast known as 'Dippy', which had been the museum's centrepiece from the 1970s (and originally displayed from 1905), was replaced by 'Hope', a 25.2-metre-long real skeleton of a juvenile female blue whale, suspended in a diving pose. The change was intended as a symbol of humanity's responsibility to protect planetary biodiversity.

The Dinosaurs gallery remains one of the museum's most popular permanent displays. It features an animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex, a Triceratops skull collected by Charles H. Sternberg from the Maastrichtian Lance/Hell Creek Formation in Wyoming, and numerous other fossil specimens. The gallery tells the story of dinosaur evolution, diversity, and extinction through real fossils and interactive exhibits.

The Darwin Centre, opened in 2009, houses the museum's historic collections alongside its working scientists. Its distinctive Cocoon structure displays important plant and insect specimen collections, and visitors can observe scientists working in open-plan laboratories.

According to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) in March 2026, the NHM was the UK's most-visited attraction in 2025, welcoming 7.1 million visitors—a 13% increase over its 2024 figure of 6.3 million and an all-time record for any UK museum or gallery. This marked the museum's third consecutive record-breaking year. Visitor numbers exceeded previous records for nine of the twelve months (April through December 2025).

Several factors contributed to this surge. The museum's transformed Gardens, reopened as one of central London's most celebrated new green spaces, attracted over 5 million of the 7.1 million visitors. The 'Fixing Our Broken Planet' permanent gallery, which opened in April 2025 and explores practical and nature-based solutions to the planetary emergency, welcomed over 2 million visitors in its first nine months. The temporary exhibition 'Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?' drew over 177,000 visitors during its 11-month run. The immersive experience 'Our Story with David Attenborough' attracted over 133,000 visitors, while the perennial 'Wildlife Photographer of the Year' exhibitions were seen by more than 182,000 visitors.

The previous UK visitor attraction leader had been the British Museum, which drew just under 6.5 million visitors in 2024 with similar numbers in 2025.

Beyond its public-facing role, the NHM is a major research centre employing over 400 scientists. Research focuses on addressing what the museum terms the 'planetary emergency', including biodiversity loss, climate change, food security, and the transition to a green economy. The museum's scientific output draws directly on its vast collections, which provide baseline data for understanding environmental change over geological and recent timescales.

The palaeontology department's research ranges from dinosaur systematics and phylogenetics to taphonomy and palaeoecology. Notable recent research contributions include work on dinosaur evolution and ecology by scientists such as Professor Paul Barrett and Professor Susannah Maidment.

The museum is pursuing an ambitious transformation programme called NHM150, which aims to raise an additional £150 million from philanthropists, trusts, foundations, and corporate partners. The goal is to create over 100 million advocates for the planet by 2031—the museum's 150th anniversary. Building on the success of its renovated Gardens and the 'Fixing Our Broken Planet' gallery, the museum has committed to opening a brand-new or revitalised permanent gallery every year until 2031.

Scheduled projects include: 'Human Nature', opening in September 2026 in a gallery that has been closed to the public for more than 80 years, featuring never-before-seen specimens and exploring how human history intertwines with understanding of the natural world; a brand-new permanent Children's Nature Gallery, the first in the museum's 15-year recent history designed specifically for its youngest visitors; and 'Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep', a blockbuster exhibition making its European debut in May 2026, featuring ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs. The museum is also in the process of establishing a new collections, science, and digitisation centre to support the ongoing move and digitisation of its 80 million specimens.

The NHM occupies a distinctive position in the history of palaeontology. It is the institution where Dinosauria was conceptually born through Owen's work, where Mantell's foundational collections are held, and where specimens like Archaeopteryx and Baryonyx have shaped scientific understanding of dinosaur evolution. The museum's dinosaur gallery has been a formative experience for generations of palaeontologists and the public alike, making it one of the world's most important venues for engaging people with the history of life on Earth. Its 2025 record attendance figures underscore the enduring public appetite for encounters with the natural world, with the dinosaur exhibitions remaining a central and irreplaceable component of the museum's identity.