A Digital Museum

Learn how we digitise museum specimens and how they can be used by scientists all over the world.

The Natural History Museum hold over 80 million specimens collected over the last 200 years, a critical time period, during which humans have had a major impact on the distribution of biodiversity, radically affecting landscapes through increased consumption of natural resources, pollution and climate change.

Digitising and sharing this data from our collections can transform scientific research- we are in a race against time to share our data with global researchers who can use it to find solutions from and for nature. We have so far digitised 5.5 million specimens, around 7% of our collection. Our digitised collections have helped establish the baseline plant biodiversity in the Amazon, found wheat crops that are more resilient to climate change, and support research into the potential zoonotic origins of Covid-19. The research that comes from sharing our specimens has immense potential to transform our world and help both people and planet thrive.

Come to our stall to find out how we digitise and race against the clock to see how long it would take you to digitise our collection.

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