From royal lions to glass squids, the Natural History Museum holds 80 million stories.
In short: The Natural History Museum in London houses over 80 million specimens, ranging from meteorites to dinosaur bones. Within its Cadogan Gallery, a curated selection of treasures reveals the scientific, historical, and cultural drama behind these objects, offering a unique window into the natural world and the history of human discovery.
The museum's collection is vast, but the Treasures Gallery focuses on items of exceptional significance. Among these is the skull of a Barbary lion, discovered in 1937 during excavations of the Tower of London's moat. This specimen, dating back about 700 years, serves as a reminder of the royal menageries of the past and the extinction of the North African Barbary lion in the wild. Similarly, the great auk stands as a stark symbol of human impact; once abundant, the species was driven to extinction by the late 1700s due to relentless exploitation for meat, feathers, and oil.
Scientific breakthroughs are also embedded in these artifacts. Charles Darwin’s work is represented by a rare 1859 first edition of On the Origin of Species, part of a collection that includes 478 editions in 38 languages. While Darwin’s finches are famous, the museum highlights his pigeon-breeding experiments as crucial evidence for his theory of evolution by artificial selection. Another milestone is the moa skeleton, identified after Richard Owen, the museum's founder, correctly predicted the existence of the giant flightless bird in 1839 based on a single bone fragment.
The gallery also celebrates human artistry and technical skill. The Blaschka glass models of marine invertebrates, created between 1876 and 1889, remain a mystery; the father-and-son team used techniques that have never been replicated. Meanwhile, the museum manages the preservation of fragile items like John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, a four-volume work of which only about 120 complete copies exist worldwide. By rotating these pages monthly, the museum ensures these exquisite illustrations survive for future generations to study and admire.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The stories behind the Museum's Treasures | Natural History Museum
- Also: Twelve highlights of our Treasures Gallery | Natural History Museum
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