Catalogue description Records created and acquired by the Natural History Museum, London

The Natural History Museum owes its foundation to the work of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753). His collections of natural history, prints and antiquities were preserved for the use of the public by the British Museum Act of 1753. The Natural History collections grew rapidly during the first century of the Museum's existence. Early donations included: Gustavus Brander's fossil shells 1766; the Royal Societies curiosities 1781; the Banksian herbarium and library in 1827; the Zoological Society of London collection in 1855 and specimens collected on eighteenth century expeditions led by explorers such as Captain James Cook.

From a single Department of Natural and Artificial Products in 1753 (renamed the Department of Natural History and Modern Curiosities in 1807) developed in 1837 the Botanical Branch, the Mineralogical and Geological Branch and the Zoological Branch, all of which were raised to departmental status in 1856; in 1857 the Department of Geology and the Department of Mineralogy were separated from each other.

As the natural history collections expanded so, too, did all the other collections at the British Museum. There was always a shortage of space to display and even to store the exhibits and early in its history the idea had been mooted of separating out one or more of the collections for housing elsewhere. There was much debate as to how the collections should be divided: whether, for example, the books and manuscripts should be separated from the exhibits, or the natural history collections from the antiquities. Richard Owen (1804-1892) became Superintendent of the Department of Natural History in 1856 and pressed for a separate natural history museum on a new site. Nevertheless, it was not until 1873 that building began on the present site in South Kensington and the removal of exhibits did not start until 1880. The new museum opened to the public in 1881 and the last of the collections was transferred in 1883.

The British Museum (Natural History), as it was now known, consisted of a Director, a tiny administrative staff, and the departments of Botany, Geology, Mineralogy and Zoology. The development of insect studies led to the creation of the Department of Entomology in 1913. Lionel Walter, second Baron Rothschild (1868-1937) bequeathed his Zoological Museum and collections at Tring to the Trustees in 1937. Tring Museum now houses the Birds Division, the ornithological research collections of the Natural History Museum and the Ornithology and Rothschild Libraries.

The British Museum (Natural History)'s growing independence was marked by the British Museum Act of 1930 which transferred responsibility for care and custody of the collections from the Principal Librarian in Bloomsbury to the Director. It continued to be administered by the Trustees of the British Museum until the British Museum Act 1963 when it became independent, with its own governing body of twelve trustees. In 1965 ministerial responsibility for the Museum's finances was transferred from the Treasury to the Department of Education and Science and thence to the Office of Arts and Libraries now the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 1987.

Originally formed as the Natural History departments of the British Museum, the Museum became a separate entity through the British Museum Act 1963. Still known after that time as the British Museum (Natural History), it officially became the Natural History Museum through the Museums and Galleries Act 1992.

During the early years of the 1970s, the Museum was reorganised. The Director's Office was split into four departments of administrative services, library services, public services (with responsibility for exhibitions and education) and central services (comprising electron microscopy, radiography, computing and biometrics, publications, photography and the museum workshops). The five scientific departments (Zoology, Entomology, Botany, Palaeontology and Mineralogy) remained and the Geological Museum was incorporated in 1985.

The Museum has always been primarily a research institution, but in the last twenty five years it has devoted much more effort into educational, exhibition and cultural activities. The Museum's research role stems from its position as one of the largest repositories of flora, fauna and mineral specimens in the world. Research was largely concerned with systematics and taxonomy but many applied fields are now also covered. The success of exhibitions and education activities is reflected in the Museum being the most visited Museum in the UK.