Links

These are links to other sites which we hope will be of interest and use. Do contact our  web manager  if you have any recommendations for additions.

SHNH does not take any responsibility for the content of any of these sites.

Nature societies online:  A directory of British and Irish natural history and related societies

This online directory from London’s Natural History Museum Website lists a wide variety of general natural history and subject specific organisations in Britain and Ireland. Local, county and national groups and societies are represented.

Societies are searchable by name, keyword (for example ‘natural history’, ‘birds’, ‘insects’ etc), initial letter or region. You may compile a list of societies by clicking the add link associated with each society. This will build a list for you, that can be sent as an email or printed.

Resources

Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library works collaboratively to make biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community. BHL also serves as the foundational literature component of the Encyclopedia of Life.

Cultures of Knowledge Project: Networking the Republic of Letters, 1550-1750
Correspondence was the information superhighway of the early modern world. Between 1550 and 1750, regular exchanges of letters encouraged the formation of virtual communities of people with shared interests in various kinds of knowledge which stretched across the globe. Classical scholars, philologists, antiquaries, patristic scholars, orientalists, theologians, astronomers, botanists, experimental natural philosophers, intelligencers, ‘free-thinkers’, and many other denizens of the Republic of Letters: all cultivated and sustained their professional, social, intellectual, and cultural lives in and through epistolary systems. the Cultures of Knowledge project, based at the University of Oxford, has been using a variety of research methods to reassemble and understand these networks.

Darwin Correspondence Project
You can read and search the full texts of more than 7,500 of Darwin’s letters, and find information on 7,500 more. All are being published in the complete edition of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin (F. Burkhardt et al. eds, Cambridge University Press).

Darwin Manuscripts Project
On this site you will find the manuscripts that record Charles Darwin’s work as a practicing scientist.

Joseph Dalton Hooker Correspondence Project
The Joseph Hooker Correspondence (JHC) project is making available, online, the personal and scientific correspondence of Joseph Hooker, the 19th century botanist and explorer. The formation of this online repository, comprised largely of previously unpublished archive material, is intended to facilitate academic research in such fields as botany and other natural sciences, horticulture, British imperialism, garden history, the history of science and the history of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Linnaean Correspondence
Prepared under the aegis of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Uppsala University and its library, and the Linnean Society of London, with the collaboration of the Centre international d’étude du XVIIIe siècle.

Linnaeus around the world
Stories and articles linked to other organisations that, in one way or another, are connected to Linnaeus providing a valuable resource for Linnaeus researchers and others – topics covered include culture, the arts, nature, geography, peoples, travel, ethnography, history, the sciences and adventure.

Linnean Collections of the Linnean Society of London online
A digital archive of unique material relating to the society’s priceless collections of specimens, manuscripts and letters, enabling full global access for investigation allowing researchers to rapidly check details of the specimens on-line, including morphological details and written data.

Royal Society – Turning the pages gallery
The ‘Turning the Pages’ gallery has high quality scans of some of the important and beautiful manuscripts in Royal Society’s collection. The latest scans include scientists exploring the world: ‘Scientific travellers’.

Sloane Letters Project
The correspondence of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) consists of thirty-eight volumes held at the British Library, London: MSS 4036-4069, 4075-4078. The letters are a rich source of information about topics such as scientific discourse, collections of antiquities, curiosities and books, patients’ illnesses, medical treatments and family history. Most of the letters were addressed to Sloane, but a few volumes were addressed to others (MSS 4063-4067) or written by Sloane (MSS 4068-4069).

Alfred Russell Wallace Correspondence Project
This ongoing project aims to locate, digitize, transcribe and interpret the surviving correspondence and other manuscripts of the 19th century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913).

Societies & Organisations

The British Society for the History of Science
The BHBS works to bring together people with an interest in the histories of science, technology and medicine and their changing relationship with society.

CILIP – Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
CILIP is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers.

Collections Link

Geological Curators Group
Geological collections are an irreplaceable part of our scientific and cultural heritage. The Geological Curators’ Group is dedicated to their better care, maintenance and use.

The Geological Society
The Geological Society of London is the UK national society for geoscience, providing support to over 10,000 members in the UK and overseas. Founded in 1807, we are the oldest geological society in the world.

The Geological Society – History of Geology Group
The History of Geology Group (HOGG) encourages interest in the lives and work of those scientists and philosophers who influenced both the study and the practice of geology.

History of Science Society
The History of Science Society is dedicated to understanding science, technology, medicine, and their interactions with society in historical context.

The International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology
ISHPSSB brings together scholars from diverse disciplines, including the life sciences as well as history, philosophy, and social studies of science.

Joseph Banks Society
The aim of the Sir Joseph Banks Society is to stimulate interest in his life and achievements through education, research, publications and events and by strengthening Lincolnshire links with Australia and New Zealand. The Joseph Banks garden was developed by the Society and includes many plants with a connection to him.

Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society encourages debate, research, publications, and meetings, as well as maintaining internationally important historical collections in the biological sciences.

London Natural History Society
Activities focus on the diverse wildlife of the London area. The website has useful links to other websites, with a focus on specialist natural history societies and similar amateur societies as well as a Recording and Mapping page.

NatSCA
The Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) is a UK based membership organisation and charity. Its mission is to promote and support natural science collections, the institutions that house them and the people that work with them, in order to improve collections care, understanding, accessibility and enjoyment for all.

National Biodiversity Network
The National Biodiversity Network is a collaborative partnership created to exchange biodiversity information. Its membership includes many UK wildlife conservation organisations, government, country agencies, environmental agencies, local environmental records centres and many voluntary groups.

National Forum for Biological Recording
The Forum seeks to promote and influence the development of biological recording and the use, management and dissemination of biodiversity information.

National Trust
The National Trust protects some of the most important spaces and places in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Natural History Institute
The Natural History Institute provides leadership and resources for a revitalized practice of natural history that integrates art, science, and humanities to promote the health and well-being of humans and the rest of the natural world.

Real World Science
Real World Science is a network of museums across the UK that use their natural history collections to engage pupils and teachers with science.

Royal Society
The Royal Society is a Fellowship of the world’s most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.

Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections
SPNHC is an international organization devoted to the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections.

Museums & Libraries

American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s preeminent scientific and cultural institutions. Since its founding in 1869, the Museum has advanced its global mission to discover, interpret, and disseminate information about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe through a wide-ranging program of scientific research, education, and exhibition. The Museum is renowned for its exhibitions and scientific collections, which serve as a field guide to the entire planet and present a panorama of the world’s cultures.

CILIP – Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
CILIP is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers.

Grant Museum of Zoology
The Grant Museum is the only remaining university zoological museum in London. It houses around 67,000 specimens, covering the whole Animal Kingdom. Founded in 1828 as a teaching collection, the Museum is packed full of skeletons, mounted animals and specimens preserved in fluid. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct including the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine, the Quagga, and the Dodo.

Great North Museum: Hancock
Newcastle’s museum of natural history, archaeology, geology and world cultures.

Museums Association
The Museums Association is a membership organisation for everyone working in museums, galleries and heritage.

Natural History Museum, London – Collections

RHS Lindley Library
The library holds unique collections of early printed books on gardening, botanical art and photographs. It also holds the archives of the Royal Horticultural Society and personal archives of notable gardeners and garden designers.

Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Situated at the center of the world’s largest museum complex, the Smithsonian Libraries forms a vital part of the research, exhibition, and educational enterprise of the Institution. The Libraries unites 20 libraries into one system supported by central collections support services. We maintain publication exchanges with more than 4,000 institutions worldwide that supply Smithsonian scientists and curators with current periodicals, exhibition catalogs, and professional society publications.

University of Cambridge Museums
The University’s collections are a world-class resource for researchers, students and members of the public.

• Botanic Garden
• Fitzwilliam Museum
• Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• Museum of Zoology
• Scott Polar Museum
• Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
• Whipple Museum of the History of Science

University of Oxford Museums

• Ashmolean Museum
• Bodleian Library
• Botanic Garden
• Museum of the History of Science
• Oxford University Museum of Natural History
• Pitt Rivers Museum

Image: Acorns © Dr Pat Morris