Above: The National History Museum

Last time, we discovered the inspiring masterful works of some of the greatest painters in human history; and found out a little bit more about the history of London’s National Gallery.

Talking about history let us now go on to our next destination. A place rich with timeless exhibits and displays…

#7 Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London and is part of the Albertopolis – a nickname for the area which was given based on the large number of educational and cultural sites in it. Albertopolis was coined after Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who was the driving force behind the Great Exhibition.

The museum is a world renowned centre of research – serving as the home of more than 70 million life and earth science specimens. These specimens belong to one of five main collections: Botany or the science of plants, Entomology or the science of insects, Mineralogy or the science of minerals, Palaeontology or the science of fossil organisms and other related remains and Zoology or the science of animals.

As you can see, coming from the different areas of study, the museum offers a lot of things to experience, both old and new, but all interesting to kids and adults alike.

The very first collection of the museum came from Sir Hans Sloane – a physician and collector, who sold most of his significant collections to the British Government for a cheap price. He also invented milk chocolate (he discovered cocoa in a trip to Jamaica, where it was used as a drink combined with water) by adding milk to the cocoa powder to make it more delicious. The Sloane collection included dried plants, and animal and human skeletons – funny how it sprawled into a gigantic collection from these simple pieces.

In 1864, in a move to house even more specimens, a competition was held for a design of a new museum which was going to be built in a then recently bought South Kensington land. The building was completed in 1880 and opened the year after.

The very first building of the museum was the Waterhouse (pictured below: in display is the famous Diplodocus cast - Diplodocus was a very large long-necked, four-legged dinosaur that had a long whip-like tail). It is a 105 foot replica found in the central hall of the museum. The cast was given by Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish industrialist, businessman, and major philanthropist who is still regarded as the second richest man in history (next to John D. Rockefeller), to King Edward VII. At that time, it cost 2,000 pounds to replicate from the original fossil which was yet to be displayed in the still under construction Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Above: The Waterhouse

This is the first ever replica of a Diplodocus. It was presented to the trustees of the museum in May 12, 1905.

As I said earlier, research is one of the primary uses of the museum. It specializes in taxonomy, identification and conservation – the specialties of the museum’s biggest contributor: Charles Darwin.

In his honor came the Darwin Centre – a newly designed home for the museum’s collection of tens of millions of preserved specimens. It also houses the workspaces for the museum’s scientific staff. It is the most significant new development in the museum’s history.

Phase one of the Darwin Centre has already been completed. On display here is the Zoological ’spirit collections’ – a collection of organisms preserved in alcohol.

Phase two will bring the “dry” entomology and botanical. Phase two is estimated to be ready for opening by 2009.

Above: Giant Squid in the museum

The most famous creature in the Darwin Centre is Archie (pictured above): a preserved 8.62 meter long Giant Squid that was caught off the coast of the Falkland Islands by a trawler. Archie was caught alive in 2004 and was brought to the museum for preservation. He was put in a wet storage and was left undissected since it is one of the few fresh catches of the species. A 9.45m acrylic tank was constructed and the body was preserved using a mixture of formalin and saline solution.

Above: Blue Whale in museum

Another icon of the museum is the parallel display of a blue whale skeleton and its scale model (pictured above) which is being displayed in the Large Mammals Hall (formerly known as the Whale Hall). It took four years to finish both models (1938), with the smaller sized skeleton weighing more than 10 tons and spanning 25 meters long. There is an urban myth going around that a time capsule was left inside the blue whale model – when actually, the space inside was originally made by the carpenters for secret cigarettes breaks and nothings more (although some coins and a telephone directory was left inside for no apparent reason!).

Aside from these displays, there are other interactive exhibits going on in the museum. On display right now is the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year which will run only until this coming 27^th of April. We recommend you visit the “After Hours” version – with included food and cocktails!

Entry to the museum is free of charge; they only request for charge for certain special exhibits. Operation hours start at 10.00 and end at 17.50 with last admission at 17.30. “After Hours” are during the last Friday of each month. It is located in Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD with telephone number +44 (0)20 7942 5000. You can easily reach the museum through the South Kensington Tube. Please refer to the road map below: