Stories
- Article
Fantastic beasts and unnatural history
Find out how a 17th-century compendium of the natural world came to present fantastical beasts –like dragons – as real, living creatures.
- Article
Native Americans and the dehumanising force of the photograph
In the second part of Native Americans through the 19th-century lens, we delve deeper into the ambivalent messages within the images.
- Article
Would you like to buy a dinosaur?
Two remarkable letters and a drawing of a plesiosaur by Mary Anning offer a tantalising portal into the exciting world of fossil hunting and discovery of the 1800s.
- Article
The birth of the public museum
The first public museums evolved from wealthy collectors’ cabinets of curiosities and were quickly recognised as useful vehicles for culture.
Catalogue
- Archives and manuscripts
- Online
President's Science Advisory Committee - Cotton Insects Reports
Date: 1965Reference: JDW/2/17/19Part of: James D. Watson Collection- Archives and manuscripts
- Online
President's Science Advisory Committee - Cotton Insects Report
Date: 1963-1964Reference: JDW/2/17/18Part of: James D. Watson Collection- Archives and manuscripts
Snakes and insects (artwork)
Date: 1960s-1970sReference: PP/RSI/B/1/2/3/2Part of: Rita Simon Collection- Books
- Online
A catalogue of the botanical and natural history part of the library of the late John, Earl of Bute. including His Lordship's noble collection of coloured drawings in natural history By Taylor, Ebret, Sibilla Merian, Miller, Van Huyssum, Ditche Lee, Pallio, Plumier, Jacquin, Schocuman, and many others. Likewise Coloured Drawings of Bengal Plants; 3 vols. in Folio, and Chinese Plants and Insects, 2 2 vols. Folio;-Together with three remarkably fine Hortus Siccus's in the highest preservation; one, late the property of Gronovius; and another, classed according to the Linnaean System. Which will be sold by auction, By Leigh and Sotheby, Booksellers, At their House in York-Street, Covent-Garden, On Thursday, May 8, 1794, And the following Days, (sunday excepted) To be viewed on Monday May 5, 1794, to the time of Sale Catalogues Price Two Shillings To be had of the following Booksellers. Mr. Walter, Charing-Cross; Mr. Becket, Pall-Mall; Mr. Robson, Bond-Street; Watkin's Temple-Bar; Mr. Sewell, Cornhill; and at the Place of Sale. - No admittance to viewing without a Catalogue.
Leigh and Sotheby.Date: 1794]- Books
- Online
A catalogue of books, Including the libraries of the following gentlemen, lately deceased, viz. Francis Hiorne, Esq; F. A. S. of Warwick; The Reverend Thomas Osborne, D. D. Rector of Clifton, Bedfordshire. Henry Brooker. Esq; late Keeper of the Records in the Augmentation Office; Marmaduke Overend, Esq; of Chiswick; The Collection of Books of Architecture of Kenton Couse, Esq; late of the Board of Works; And the Medical Library of a Physician, who has left Practice: Also a singular Assemblage of Old English Poetry and Plays. Amongst others equally valuable are Military and Religious Orders, 800 Drawings, in colours, 8 vol. Morocco Antichita D'ercolano, 8 vol. Russ. Hodges's Views in India, on silk paper Piranesi's Works, 17 vol. Russ. Vitrovius Britannicus, 5 vol. large paper Atlantic Neptune, by Des Barres, 4 vol. Merian's Views, 11 vol. Graevius, Gronovius, & Burmann. 70 vol. Hill's Vegetable System, 26 vol. Seba Thesaur. Rer. Natur. 4 vol. Russ. Catesby's Carolina, 2 vol. coloured Weinman's Flowers and Fruits, 8 vol. do. Merian's Surinam Insects, ditto. Merian's European Insects, 3 vol. coloured by the Author Martyn, Born and Knott's Shells, ditto. Cramer, Ernst, Wilkes and Harris's Moths and Flies, ditto Sepp, Rosell, and Stoll's Insects, ditto Edwards, Lewin, Seligman and Brown's Birds, ditto Scheffer's Birds, Insects, &c. 12 vol. ditto Miller and Plenck's Plants, 4 vol. ditto Knott's Petrifactions, 4 vol. ditto Petiveri Opera, 3 vol. Moracco Morisoni Hist. Plant. 2 vol. ditto Salvianus de Piscibus Cowper, Albinus, Hunter and Smellie Biblia Polyglotta Waltoni, 8 vol. Russ. Biblia Polyglotta, Montani, 8 vol. Kennicol's Bible, and Woide's Test. 3 vol. Erasmi Opera, 11 vol. Lactantius, 1468-T. Aquinas, 1469 V. Max. Spira, 1471-Plinius Jenson, 1472 Herodotus, 1474-Diog. Laertius, 1475 Astronomi Veteres, ap. Aldum Breydenback Peregrinationes - 1486 Caesaris Comment. Clarkii, Morocco Platonis Opera, Serrani, 3 vol. ditto Doleti Comment. Ling. Lat. 2 vol. Russ. Stephani Thesaur. Gr. 6 vol. - Ducange & Carpentier Gloss. 10 vol. Meninski, Golii & Giggaei Lexicon Encyclopedie, 33 tom. - Paris Moutfaucon, & Supplem. 15 t. gr. papier. Fables de la Fontaine, 4 tom. ditto Polyphih Hypnerotomachia - Ald. Speculum Salvationis, MS. Domesday Book, 2 vol. Russia State Trials, 11 vol. large paper, Russ. Froissart and Hollinshed's Chronicles, ib. Drake's York, and Harris's Kent. l. paper Stukeley's Stonehenge and Abury, 2 vol. Edmondson's Peerage, 6 vol. Nisbet's System of Heraldry, 2 vol. Various Heraldical Manuscripts Purchas and Hackluyt's Voyages Montfaucon in English, 7 vol. large paper Shakspeare, 1st, 2d and 3d edit. Caxton's History of Troy Boke of Faytes and Armes, Caxton The Book of St. Albons, MS. Spectator, Tatler and Guardian, 6 vol. orig. edit. Prevost, Recueil des Voyages, 26 tom. Harding's Bandello, 3 vol. large paper Tacitus, Brotier, 4 vol. cb. max. Aristides, a Jebb, 2 vol. ditto Silius Italicus, Drakenborch, ditto Ovidius Burmanni, 4 vol. ditto Horatius Bentleii, ditto Elziver Classics, 93-vol. Morocco Painter's Palace of Pleasure, 2 vol. Political State of Great Britain, 60 vol. Parliamentary Debates, &c. 136 vol. which are now selling, 1791 (for ready Money) By Thomas and John Egerton, (successors to Mr. Millan) at the Military Library, Whitehall. - The full Value given for Libraries.
Thomas and John Egerton.Date: 1791]