Natural History Museum

Established in 1881, the Natural History Museum houses unparalleled terrestrial treasures in five primary collections that tell the story of our planet. The world's oldest entomology collection features 34 million insects and arachnids. The zoology collection contains 29 million animal specimens, including extinct and endangered species. The paleontology collection boasts 7 million, vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant fossils. The botanical collection houses 6 million specimens of bryophtyes, ferns, seed plants and slime molds. The mineralogy collection contains 500,000 rocks, gems, and minerals.

In addition, the library and archives are home to more than 1.5 million books, manuscripts, and artwork that are critical for scientific, historical, and humanities research. With stunning collections in state-of-the-art facilities, the Natural History Museum works to instill wonder in visitors and help scientists to solve mysteries about the past, present, and future about life on Earth.