In Pictures: Natural History Museum's Treasures Gallery

By Culture24 Reporter | 07 December 2012

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A photo of a large prehistoric gorilla's hairy face

London Zoo's best-loved resident, Guy, a western lowland gorilla (1946–1978)© Natural History Museum

Charles Darwin, Hans Sloane, Alfred Russel Wallace and Richard Owen are all contributors to the newest gallery at the Natural History Museum – a permanent showcase of 22 of the centre’s most significant and valuable objects.

A photo of a large grey octopus against a black background

An Octopus vulgaris (1876–1889) is one of three glass models - the others are a radiolarian and a jellyfish© Natural History Museum

Overlooking Dippy the Diplodocus on the upper mezzanine of the Central Hall, the exhibits honour more than 70 million species from 4.5 billion years of nature.

A photo of a large prehistoric dodo standing on a white plinth against a black backdrop

Rare dodo skeleton (Raphus cucullatus), an icon of extinction. Constructed from bones around 1,000 years old© Natural History Museum

They cover the worlds of botany, mineralogy, zoology and palaeontology. The gallery has been named after The Cadogan Charity, which recently gave £2 million to the museum.

A photo of a large craggy white, brown and grey prehistoric meteorite

The Wold Cottage meteorite is the UK's earliest surviving meteorite. It was seen to fall in Yorkshire on December 13 1795, but dates from around 4.6 billion years ago© Natural History Museum

Curators say each object reveals a "surprising" aspect of the museum’s past. "Treasures represents an exciting future for the Natural History Museum," says Director Dr Michael Dixon.

A photo of a book open on a page which says the origin of species in black ink

A rare first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species dates from 1859© Natural History Museum

"By inviting the world to explore the highlights of our world famous collection in this permanent gallery, many generations of visitors will capture their own unique insight into our natural world."

A photo of a large white prehistoric egg with a square crack in the middle against a black background

Emperor penguin egg (Aptenodytes forsteri), collected on Scott’s last expedition to the Antarctic (1911)© Natural History Museum

Treasures in the Cadogan Gallery is open at the Natural History Museum now. Visit the gallery online to find out more, and follow the museum on Twitter @NHM_London.

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