The Natural History Museum London

Formerly the British Museum (Natural History)

This is one of the world's truly great natural history museums, with major scientific collections of herpetology, ichthyology, mammalogy, ornithology, entomology, malacology, botany and paleontology. The beautiful building was opened in the 1870s as a "cathedral to nature," and is an architectural highlight of London. The museum has collections made by Darwin, Banks, Owen, Huxley and other historically notable biologists. The library is one of the most comprehensive on earth.

The museum has a website, offers courses, lectures and ecotours, and houses many fine galleries. Open daily, with a nominal admissions fee. There is a bookshop, giftshop, tea/coffee shop and a restaurant. The museum is also home to the Internatioanl Commission for Zoological Nomenclature.

The name was formally changed to The Natural History Museum in 1994. The collections are still catalogued with numbers prefaced by the old initials, "BMNH," and zoologists who have used the museum long before the 1990s still refer to her as "the BM."

The Museum's Mammal Hall gives the visitor an instant picture of just how small such giants as 
elephants and rhinos are when compared with a blue whale. The Hall features many mammals 
and their skeletons, and includes both prehistoric and living species.