Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London
Greater London
SW7 5BD
England
Website
Main site
Academic site
www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/
Tring Zoological Museum
Nature Online
Kids Only
general
education
website
Telephone
general
020 7942 5000
education
020 7942 5555
website
020 7942 5821
Dinosaurs, volcanoes, precious gems, creepy crawlies - as a visitor to The Natural History Museum you will be amazed by the diversity of our natural world.
The Natural History Museum is home to the nation's finest collections of natural history specimens and is one of the UK's top visitor attractions. The Museum's collection now runs to 70 million plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, fossils, rocks and minerals - many of which are displayed through its fascinating exhibitions and more than you could ever see in one day.
Venue Type:
Museum
The Natural History Museum's natural science collections are the finest in Europe and are divided into:
1. Botany
2. Entomology
3. Mineralogy
4. Palaeontology
5. Zoology
Collection details
Archives, Fine Art, Natural Sciences, Personalities, Photography, Science and Technology
Key artists and exhibits
- Highlights of a trip to The Natural History Museum include:
- *The Darwin Centre (Phase One), where you can take a behind-the-scenes tour for the first time to see some of the 22 million zoology specimens on display and meet the scientists working with the collections. A packed programme of tours and talks with scientists about their work gives visitors the chance to engage with the natural world in a more informed way.
- *The Dinosaurs exhibition, with its animatronic displays and real dinosaur skeletons.
- *Entering the Earth Galleries through a giant suspended globe and a visit to our permanent exhibits on the origin of the universe and the restless earth - including the human experience of earthquakes and volcanoes.
- *Investigate - a hands-on education centre where visitors can be scientists and examine hundreds of specimens.
- *Permanent exhibits devoted to mammals, creepy crawlies, human biology, ecology and much more.
- *A regular and changing programme of special science, art and photography exhibitions on all aspects of the natural world.
Dinosaurs
- 22 February 2013 — 22 February 2015 *on now
Explore the Dinosaurs gallery and come face-to-face with an animatronic T-rex
Suitable for
- Any age
Investigate Centre
- 22 February 2013 — 22 February 2015 *on now
Become a scientist in our hands-on education space where you can examine hundreds of real natural history specimens
Suitable for
- Any age
The Vault
- 22 February 2013 — 22 February 2015 *on now
Highlights include a collection of 296 naturally coloured diamonds known as the Aurora Pyramid of Hope, Medusa, a giant, one-of-a-kind emerald from Zambia, and Tissint, a Martian meteorite that landed in Morocco last year
Suitable for
- Any age
Cocoon
- 22 February 2013 — 22 February 2015 *on now
Travel through the Cocoon experience deep into the heart of the collections to glimpse the working life of our scientists. See the previously hidden world of scientific research through viewing decks, video, intercom and more than 40 high-tech installations and hands-on interactive activities. Visitors will be able to interact with learning activators stationed throughout Cocoon and discover more about scientific techniques used in labs at Science Focus activity points near the viewing decks
Suitable for
- Any age
Images of Nature
- 22 February 2013 — 22 February 2015 *on now
Indulge your passion for natural history, botanical illustration and scientific investigation. This permanent gallery showcases highlights from the Museum’s extensive collection of prints, watercolours and oil paintings, alongside intriguing scientific images. The art of India is the theme for this year’s temporary exhibition, which showcases Indian botanical and zoological watercolours commissioned by those working for the British East India Company during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Also on display is a modern response to this work by contemporary Indian artist Sunoj D
Suitable for
- Any age
Treasures
- 22 February 2013 — 22 February 2015 *on now
See 22 of the most valuable and significant items in the Museum’s collection. This cabinet of curiosities includes unique, famous and surprising specimens from the worlds of botany, mineralogy, zoology and palaeontology. Highlights include Charles Darwin’s pigeons, which provided him with the crucial evidence for the theory of evolution by natural selection, and the skull of a Barbary lion, which is thought to have lived in the Tower of London around 1280–1385
Suitable for
- Any age
Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story
- 13 February — 28 September 2014 *on now
Travel back in time and experience the dramatic story of prehistoric Britain, its changing landscapes and the people that lived here one million years ago.
Find out how Britain looked long before the Romans, Saxons and Vikings arrived and discover rarely seen specimens from behind the scenes, brought to life using the latest scientific techniques and life-size models.
Incredible finds from sites around Britain will reveal what life was really like one million years ago.
Please note: this exhibition is ticketed. Please purchase tickets in advance. Adults 39.00, Children/Concessions £4.50. Please visit venue's website to book tickets and for information about family concessions.
Suitable for
- Any age
Admission
£4.50/£9.00
Website
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/britain-million-years/index.html
Sensational Butterflies
- 3 April — 14 September 2014 *on now
Experience the wonder of walking among hundreds of free-flying butterflies this spring when our tropical butterfly house returns to the Natural History Museum. This family-friendly exhibition allows you to wander through a tropical enclosure, discovering the science behind these delicate creatures and their amazing life cycles as they evolve from crawling caterpillars into beautiful butterflies. Book your tickets now to come and see them take flight
Suitable for
- Any age
Mammoths: Ice Age Giants
- 23 May 2014 — 23 May 2015
Enter the amazing world of some of the largest creatures to ever walk the earth. See huge fossils and life-size models of mammoths, and square up to the powerful trunks and tusks of these great beasts.
You’ll even be able to try out life as a mammoth: tusk jousting, trunk moving and feeling the weight of the hundreds of kilogrammes of food a mammoth ate each day – equivalent to about 230 bags of sugar.
The exhibition will take you on an inspiring journey from the time when these titans roamed the land through to today’s research into the causes of mammoth extinction and ways to protect their precious modern relatives, the elephants
Suitable for
- Any age
Admission
£5.40-£10 (family ticket £25-£28, free for children under four)
Around the world in 90 minutes
- 25 — 27 April 2014
Discover the Rosetta Stone, the Lewis Chessmen and the Parthenon Sculptures, as well as some lesser-known but fascinating objects, with expert guidance that will take you to the heart of the museum's collection. 11.30am and 2pm
Admission
£12
Dino Snores for Grown Ups: The Ultimate Sleepover - Museums at Night
- 16 — 17 May 2014 7pm-9:30am
Museums at Night: Ever wondered what happens when the doors close at one of the world’s most famous sites dedicated to natural history? Now you can find out for yourself at Dino Snores for Grown Ups, one of the UK’s most extraordinary sleepovers. This unique sleepover offers an unforgettable night of music, art, science and cinema, all in the mysterious setting of the Museum at night.
All you need to enjoy the night is an enquiring mind, a sense of adventure and a sleeping bag, of course.
Suitable for
- 18+
Admission
£175 per person (£160 for Members)
Website
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/after-hours//dino-snores-grown-ups/
Who Do You Think You Really Are?
- 1 — 30 June 2014
For the first time, you can bring a dinosaur and an early human to life before your eyes with the unique, state-of-the-art interactive film Who Do You Think You Really Are?
Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, this film uses screens, webcams and specially designed, hand-held devices to takes you on a virtual journey through your evolutionary past. Extinct creatures appear to roam around in the studio using augmented reality – the blending of computer graphics into real life. Using CGI models developed with the support of the Wellcome Trust, BBC natural history footage and interviews with leading Natural History Museum scientists, the interactive film explores how we have gradually evolved from the earliest life form. Thanks to an innovative partnership with BBC Research & Development, this is the first time augmented reality has been used in a high-profile public space.
Every day at 3.30pm; most weekends at 11am.
Suitable for
- Any age
Dino Snores
- 14 — 15 June 2014 7pm-9:50am
Discover what really happens at the Museum when the staff and visitors have gone home. Stalk the corridors as night descends, join a torch-lit trail in the Dinosaurs gallery, watch an amazing live show by our scientists and snuggle down at midnight in the shadow of the Diplodocus skeleton in the Museum’s Central Hall. Before the doors open to the public in the morning, ogle owls and marvel at meerkats in a spectacular live animal show with Animal Man, Nick Spellman
Suitable for
- 7-10
- 11-13
Admission
£52. Visit www.nhm.ac.uk/dino-snores. For 7-11-year-olds
Treasure of the Month: Blaschka Glass Models
- 16 June 2014 From 2:30pm
Each month, with the help of a Museum scientist, we explore a different object from the new Treasures exhibition. The new Treasures exhibition features 22 of the Museum's most fascinating artefacts. Each month we put a different object in the spotlight and, together with a Museum scientist, explore what makes it such a treasure. See unique, famous and surprising specimens that led to major scientific discoveries as well as some of extraordinary objects that didn't make it on display
Suitable for
- Any age
Curating the Collection: Fossil Mammals from London
- 19 June 2014
Join us as we meet a curator and volunteers from the museum to explore how they care for the extraordinary fossil mammals found in London during the Pleistocene, with a live link and footage from behind the scenes
Suitable for
- Any age
Fly Babies
- 20 June 2014 From 2:30pm
- 23 June 2014 From 12:30pm, From 2:30pm
Learn how to spot flies and find out about the lifestyles and changing forms they take at different stages in their lives. When you think of flies, maybe the small black creatures buzzing around your picnic come to mind. In fact we have more than 7,000 species of flies in Britain, each looking very different and with unique life cycles. Join us as we meet a Museum curator who will dig out the weirdest and the most beautiful flies from our collection. Come and find out about their lifestyles and the changing forms they take at different stages of their short lives
Suitable for
- Any age
Dino Snores for Grown Ups: The ultimate sleepover
- 20 — 21 June 2014 7pm-9:30am
- 22 — 23 August 2014 7pm-9:30am
- 25 — 26 October 2014 7pm-9:30am
Museums at Night: Ever wondered what happens when the doors close at one of the world’s most famous sites dedicated to natural history? Now you can find out for yourself at Dino Snores for Grown Ups, one of the UK’s most extraordinary sleepovers. This unique sleepover offers an unforgettable night of music, art, science and cinema, all in the mysterious setting of the Museum at night.
All you need to enjoy the night is an enquiring mind, a sense of adventure and a sleeping bag, of course.
Suitable for
- 18+
- Not suitable for children
Admission
£175 per person (£160 for Members)
Website
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/after-hours//dino-snores-grown-ups/
Dino Directory
http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/dino-directory/
Dinosaur datafiles
http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/dino-directory/about-teachers.dsml
The Data Files contain extended information about some of the dinosaurs in the Museum's Dino Directory, They have been designed so that they can be printed out and photocopied for use in the classroom, at home or in the Museum itself.
Creator
- The Natural History Museum
Publisher
- The Natural History Museum
Hair Detective
Investigate
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/education/activities/school-activities/investigate/index.html
Investigate is a bookable state-of-the-art, hands-on science centre available to school groups at Key Stages 2 and 3. Students become scientists and explore the processes of science. Museum staff encourage them to ask their own questions about hundreds of real specimens. With everything from dinosaur fossils to butterflies and rare minerals , students can explore some of the diversity of the natural world with scientific equipment and computer resources.
Creator
- The Natural History Museum
Publisher
- The Natural History Museum
Mission: Explore
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/kids-only/fun-games/mission-explore/index.html
Predator or Scavenger?
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/dinosaurs-other-extinct-creatures/trex-quiz/
This activity lets you explore different features of T. rex. Look at each of the pieces of evidence and decide whether you think T. rex was a scavenger, predator or even both.
Seeds of Trade
Civilisation is based on the cultivation of plants, but humans rely on plants for far more than simple foodstuffs. This virtual book, written by Henry Hobhouse, the author of Seeds of Change, and Museum botanist Sandra Knapp, is an introduction to the fascinating history of cultivation and some of its impacts on today's society.
Creator
- Hobhouse, Knapp and Lowndes
Teachers' resource
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/education/teachers-resource/index.jsp
Our galleries, events, online videos and activities support a large number of classroom needs.
Enter a topic you are interested in and the Teachers' resource will bring you all the relevant learning outcomes covered by our museum resources.
Includes Teachers' packs and Gallery Guides.
Creator
- The Natural History Museum
Publisher
- The Natural History Museum
The Story of Perseus and Andromeda
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/stories-of-the-skies/perseus-andromeda/story/the-story-of-perseus-and-andromeda
What Dinosaur are You?
Wildlife garden activities
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/education/activities/school-activities/wildlife-garden-activities.html
During the summer term, we offer a number of activities that complement National Curriculum Science and Early Learning Goals . Themes covered include creepy crawlies, habitats, variation, classification and grouping, plants and animals in the local environment and adaptation.
Creator
- The Natural History Museum
Publisher
- The Natural History Museum
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