For every animal or plant you see at a natural history museum, there are millions more behind the scenes.
Fish in jars
Shells in boxes
Insects on pins
Birds in drawers
Plants on paper
…and so many more.
What are natural history collections?
Examples of animals and plants that are preserved, labeled, and organized so they can be studied—like unique books in a giant library of life.
Where do the animals
and plants come from?
All over the world — every continent, every country, every ocean. Scientists climb mountains, wade in rivers, hike through forests, and even dive under the sea to find them.
Why are there so many?
Scientists need to have many examples of animals and plants to identify and name different species, find out how they are related, and document where they live.
What do the labels say?
A label with each specimen gives its scientific name, who collected it, and where and when it was collected. These essential pieces of information are the specimen’s data. Scientists record these data so the specimen will be useful for study.
What are all these collections for?
Understanding life on Earth — past, present, and future.
Big and Small — We Have Them All
Natural history specimens come in all shapes and sizes.
There are billions of specimens in natural history collections all around the world. The variety of specimens in these vast collections is amazing.
Natural history specimens are:
Data Connects Collections
Real specimens in drawers are essential, but what if someone far away wants to study a specimen? Or analyze specimen data from hundreds of collections around the world?
Scientists can digitize each specimen so its image and data can be shared over the Internet.
Digitization is much more than just taking a picture. There are many steps:
Natural history museums share all these data in a free online catalog called iDigBio (Integrated Digitized Biocollections). iDigBio has data for more than 100 million specimens, and it’s growing every day.
Big Data for Big Questions
Collecting specimens and data helps us to understand biodiversity now and in the future.
Scientists have collected animal and plant specimens for hundreds of years.
Digitizing these huge collections creates lots of data. We can use these data to answer big questions about how the natural world works and changes over time.
How does climate affect animal populations?
Locations of insect populations followed the changing temperatures across North America.
Who: Emily L. Sandall, Ph.D. student, and Dr. Andrew R. Deans
Where: The Frost Entomological Museum
at Pennsylvania State University
What: Digital data from 13 species of damselflies in North America
How fast can animal populations change?
Populations of land snails can change appearance
in less than 100 years.
Who: Dr. Małgorzata Ożgo from Poland, with colleagues from Malaysia and the Netherlands
Where: Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands
What: Digitized historical specimens of grove land snails compared to recently collected specimens
Does biodiversity ever change?
Revisiting past collecting sites may reveal changes
in the distribution of mollusk species over time.
Who: Dr. Gary Rosenberg, with students and collaborators
Where: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
What: Digital data for marine mollusk specimens collected from the late 1800s to now on the New Jersey coast
Collections Are for Everyone
Digital data inspires exploration and discovery of life on Earth.
People of all ages can use natural history collections and digitized data to learn about the natural world. What animals and plants are you curious about?
Art students sharpened their observation and technical skills by drawing insect specimens from the Frost Entomological Museum at Pennsylvania State University.
Undergraduate students from Widener University in Pennsylvania spent a semester at the Delaware Museum of Natural History. They used digital data and specimens to learn about birds, mollusks, and the scientific method.
Hundreds of volunteers are helping the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to survey land snails and find out how urbanization is affecting snails in the region.
You don’t need a science degree to work with digital natural history collections. You can:
- Use the iNaturalist app to collect and share natural history data
- Come to an iDigBio digitizing event
- Volunteer to help digitize specimens in a museum
- And more!
The information on this page was initially created for the Little Creatures: Big Data exhibit produced by the Delaware Museum of Natural History as part of InvertEBase, a digitization project for North American arthropod and mollusk collections funded by the National Science Foundation.
Exhibit team: Liz Shea, Jean Woods, Jane E. Boyd, Stephanie Gleit
Additional photography: Matt McGraw, Alisha Solaiman, Aaron Bond, Rosemary Ginzberg, Leslie Skibinski, Meredith Hatzinikolas, José Leal (Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum), Andy Deans (The Frost Entomological Museum at Pennsylvania State University), The C.V Starr Virtual Herbarium of The New York Botanical Garden, iDigBio, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Universidade de Brasília.
Thanks to colleagues who generously provided advice, information, and images.
iDigBio is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections Program [DBI-1115210 (2011–2018) and DBI-1547229 (2016–2021)]. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those
of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
InvertEBase is a Thematic Collections Network of iDigBio and is funded by National Science Foundation grants to the following collaborative partners:
- Auburn University Museum of Natural History, EF 14-01176
- Cleveland Museum of Natural History, EF 14-02785
- Delaware Museum of Natural History, EF 14-02697
- Field Museum, Chicago, EF 14-02667
- The Frost Entomological Museum at Pennsylvania State University, EF 14-00993
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, EF 14-01450
- University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, EF 14-04964