London Museums :: Natural History Museum

For my first museum post, I take you to the museum that I have visited most frequently over the 5 years living in London. As a nature lover / dork, and a wishful student of photography, the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year is something I always try to get to. This exhibit is what brought us the the museum today.

…. notes on the building ::

A few notes on the museum itself first. This museum is striking because it was purpose built for this specific scientific & exhibition museum.  Therefore, not only is the architecture stunning to look at, but it’s filled with a number of little animal & plant ornaments scattered throughout the building; take a look at this monkey I found checking out the whale skeleton ::

 

The Standard Exhibits ::

As for the rest of the museum, there are thousands of “specimens,” including large stuffed animals (like dead ones, not teddy bears), skeletons, rocks, butterflies, coral, and then obviously some pickled dead things in jars. Here are some of my favourites that we saw today —

Rocks & Coral

 

Random pretty things and this Dodo skeleton ::

Creepy jars with things (that make you feel like a mad scientist) ::

 

Some really pretty seaweed & butterflies ::

 

…. and let’s not forget some skeletons!!

You could easily spend multiple days here reading and seeing everything, but beware, there are lots of kids (which may be a good or bad thing for you)!! Like most museums I’ve found in London so far, I prefer to go to the special exhibits, such as ….

… the Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Now, about the exhibit we went to see – Wildlife Photographer of the Year. There are a number of categories (maybe 10 or so?) each with at least 5 finalists and then each with the winner. They also have really interesting stories that accompany each photo, and there are at least 2 whole categories dedicated to photojournalism on specific environmental or wildlife conservation topics.

All the photos were true pieces of artwork – I hope one day I can take a photo as perfect as some of what we saw. We grabbed a bunch of postcards – so here are some pics of some of our favourites (please note my few pictures of the postcards are no where near as brilliant as the photos themselves).