From the Collections of the National Museum of Natural History
Collections are the heart and soul of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Our collections — 147 million items and growing — reflect our amazing world, inspire wonder, and form the foundation for scientific discovery.
Our collections belong to you, too. Yournational museum holds these objects in safekeeping so that future generations can study and enjoy them.
Objects of Wonder, an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, hints at the vastness and diversity of the museum's collections.
Collections Define the Museum
Behind the scenes, teams of researchers add to, manage, and learn from the collections, while collections professionals prepare, document, and preserve each object.
A wide-angle view of a huge storage facility, with staff members standing among a variety of anthropological artifacts, including pottery, boats, and art objects
Anthropology collections stored at the Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland
All Collections Must Start Somewhere
Each of the seven departments at the National Museum of Natural History can trace its collections back to foundational objects. They represent some of the first catalogued specimens, the first collected artifacts, and first donated collections in the museum that mark the beginnings of the vast collections we house today.
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1
Paleobiology
Collected in the late 1800s, this mosasaur tooth was among the first specimens officially catalogued by the Paleobiology department. In fact, the mosasaur tooth was given the very first catalog number for a vertebrate fossil: USNM V1.
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Mosasaur tooth, Mosasaurus sp., 75-66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous, North Carolina
2
Entomology
When C.V. Riley became the museum’s Honorary Curator of Insects in 1881, he not only brought with him the Department of Agriculture’s insect collection, he also donated his personal collection of 150,000 specimens representing 20,000 species.
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American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus, Illinois, circa 1875
3
Botany
From 1904 to 1918, Drs. Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose studied cacti across North America and the Caribbean, collecting over 7,000 herbarium specimens and forming the foundation for the museum’s large cactus collection.
This collection contains thousands of specimens and many scientific illustrations.
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Ferocactus rectispinus, Mary Emily Eaton, 1911 in Britton, N.L., and J.N. Rose (1922).The Cactaceae
4
Vertebrate Zoology
A team of scientists and artists on the U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838–1842) brought back thousands of specimens, sketches, and field notes on the wildlife, landscapes, and cultures they encountered in the South Pacific.
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Wallaby Petrogale penicillata, Australia, circa 1838–1842, Acquired during the U.S. Exploring Expedition
5
Invertebrate Zoology
Before Congress established the Smithsonian Institution in 1846, no national museum existed to house the thousands of objects collected by the recently completed U.S. Exploring Expedition. Instead, these specimens and cultural items were stored and exhibited at the Patent Office Building.
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Basket star, Astrocladus euryale, South Africa, 1841, Acquired during the U.S. Exploring Expedition
6
Mineral Sciences
Washington Roebling, the civil engineer behind the Brooklyn Bridge, was a dedicated mineral collector. When Roebling died in 1926, his son donated his father’s 16,000 mineral specimens to the museum, along with an endowment to help the collection expand.
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Diorite, Egypt, Donated by John A. Roebling II, 1926
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Anthropology
Japan’s chief negotiator presented these exquisite sake (rice wine) cups and other diplomatic gifts to Commodore Matthew Perry and other U.S. officials after signing the Kanagawa Treaty, the first treaty between Japan and the United States.
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Sake cups, Japanese, Japan, 1854, Porcelain
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New Collections
In 2011, the museum began building a new type of collection: the Biorepository, which currently contains more than 4 million tissue and DNA samples.
In the Biorepository’s super-cooled freezers, you’ll find thousands of vials of tissue samples, each one linked to a particular specimen in our collections. Scientists use these samples to study everything from biodiversity and population genetics to toxicology and environmental monitoring.
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Muscle tissue from this scissor-tailed flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus) study skin is frozen for future research.
Collections Are Vast
Large collections provide a more accurate picture of a species or culture.
A man dressed in a dark sweater stands within a sprawling array of file drawers and cabinets, open to reveal thousands of shells
Smithsonian zoologist Chris Meyer studies and cares for the over 46,000 cowrie shells in our collections, encompassing 223 species.
Why Do We Have So Many?
A single specimen can’t reveal the full spectrum of variation in a species — that’s why scientists collect many individuals. A collection can showcase the range of differences within a species. This allows scientists to compare individuals and populations, track variations through time or across distances, and identify new species.
This dazzling array of sizes, colors, and patterns represents the variation that can be found within the same species — no two tiger cowries are the same.
Each of these cowries has been placed on the map where it was collected.
Photos of brown and white speckled sea snail shells on top of a map of the Indian and Pacific oceans
Something new?
Scientists identify new species and document biodiversity by making comparisons. They look at natural variation among individuals in a local population and then expand their search geographically until they find the edge of the species’ range.
Action at the Edge
The most interesting and meaningful variations often occur at the edge of a species' range. Genetic results indicate change is happening in the Marquesas, where isolated populations are slowly diverging.
Photos of brown and white speckled sea snail shells on top of a map of the Indian and Pacific oceans
Explore the variation found in the tiger cowrie specimens on this distribution map as you move from the center of their range to the eastern edge:
The back of a cream-colored sea snail shell with many dark brown speckles
This cowrie was collected in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia in 1970.
A brown and white speckled sea snail shell in highlighted with an orange circle at the center of the map just north of Australia.
This specimen was collected in 1967 in Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean.
The back of a tan-colored sea snail shell with many dark brown speckles
This shell came from Tuamotu, French Polynesia, in 1967.
The back of a cream-colored sea snail shell with fewer dark brown speckles
This specimen, from the Marquesa Islands, French Polynesia, was collected in 1967.
The back of a brown sea snail shell with more dark brown speckles than brown background. It is broader in the middle than the previous shells
Notice its more deltoid (kite-shaped) shell, compared to the others. Because of this shell difference as well as a unique genetic signature, Smithsonian scientists have determined it is part of a new cowrie subspecies, named Cypraea tigris lorenzi.
Tiger cowries are a type of tropical sea snail. The adult snails don’t travel very far, but their tiny larvae drift on currents, accounting for the species' staggering geographic range.
Live tiger cowrie, New Georgia Island, Solomon Islands, 20 ft (6 m) deep
What Do Collections Tell Us?
Broad collections of cultural objects, like pots and bowls, can reveal key cultural values for a community. Anthropologists study collections to understand how these values change over time and place.
Open dialogue and collaboration between anthropologists and community members leads to a richer understanding of a collection’s cultural and historic meanings.
Below, a Zuni member and a museum anthropologist share how this collection of Zuni pottery speaks to them.
A pottery vase decorated with repeated black and white zig-zag geometric patterns
A professional portrait of Jim Enote with trees in the background
Jim Enote, Zuni tribal member; CEO, Colorado Plateau Foundation
“Consider the pottery — how it is born and how it will speak. Imagine the harmony of earth, water, and fire. Imagine the experiences that inform the artist’s perspective and illustrations of the Zuni world.
The pottery collection’s larger story of place, circumstance, and expression is waiting to be told. By exhibiting this collection with a Zuni perspective, an honorable step is being taken to recognize another viewpoint.”
A white pottery bowl decorated with black circles, lines, and arcs
A professional portrait of Gwyneira Isaac with an orange background
Gwyneira Isaac, Smithsonian anthropologist
“19th century anthropologists collected many objects from Indigenous communities, thinking the pieces might be the last of their kind as cultures died out or were assimilated. These communities have endured the forces of colonialism and are increasingly interested in the care and interpretation of these objects.
What is the museum’s responsibility to the objects and their source communities? By building collaborative partnerships with Indigenous peoples, we can make collections more available for heritage programming in these communities.”
A pottery vessel in the form of a squat duck, decorated with speckles and geometric shapes
These pieces highlight how animals signify the importance of water, changing seasons, and the cycle of life in Zuni agricultural society.
— Gwyneira Isaac, Smithsonian anthropologist
Animals are family and ancestors. As terrestrial, aquatic, and of the sky, animals sustain and inspire us.
— Jim Enote, CEO, Colorado Plateau Fund
A pottery vase decorated with repeated black and white geometric patterns
A white pottery bowl decorated with black circles, lines, and arcs
A pottery vase richly decorated with geometric patterns and animal profiles
A buff-colored pottery cup with handle, decorated with red and black geometric patterns
A pottery vessel in the form of a squat duck, decorated with speckles and geometric shapes
A large, whitish vase richly decorated with swoops and geometric patterns
A triangular pottery container with a small mouth and red and black decorations resembling flying insects
Zuni pottery reflects a breadth of artistic style and uses.
Collections Are Actively Used
Using traditional techniques and new technologies, researchers at the Smithsonian and
from around the world examine our collections to uncover their hidden stories.
A museum researcher shows three scientists a plant dried and pressed on paper in front of shelves filled with folders of similar papers
Smithsonian botanist Vicki Funk (center) conducts collections-based research in the United States National Herbarium with the next generation of students and scientists.
Bringing Secrets to Light
An object’s significance may not be immediately apparent. A closer look can reveal hidden complexities.
What can algae on the Arctic seafloor tell us about climate change?
Over their long lifespans, coralline algae preserve thousand-year-old records of environmental conditions in their hard, calcified crusts: their seasonal growth bands mirror the expansion and retreat of sea ice.
Smithsonian botanist Walter Adey discovered that the seasonal growth of these algae provides evidence that over the past 150 years, Arctic sea temperatures have been rising, while the extent and duration of sea ice have been declining at a rapid pace.
Diver Thew Suskiewiczcollects coralline algae in the Arctic to bring back to the museum, adding to the over 5,000 specimens in this growing climate archive.
A scuba diver in a blue wet suit collects artifacts from a coral formation
Deciphering the Climate Record
By chemically analyzing the growth bands in samples within the coralline collection, scientists are gaining new insight into past water temperatures.
Coralline alga (sectioned), Clathromorphumcompactum, Labrador, Canada, collected 2011. This specimen lived to be 654 years old.
A knobby, ivory-colored specimen, its near side cut and polished to reveal a subtle layering
Old Objects, New Knowledge
By caring for our collections now, we help future scientists make new discoveries. Objects originally collected and used for one purpose can tell us new information as we pose new questions and use new techniques.
A Whale of a Tale
Layer by layer, a whale’s earwax builds up into a large plug over the animal’s lifetime, sealing all sorts of information in wax.
For over 50 years, marine biologists have used earwax plugs to determine a whale’s age, similar to counting tree rings.
An oblong, linear, dark brown object with visible layering
Baleen whale earwax samples, species unknown, San Francisco Bay Area, California, mid-1960s. Taken by commercial whaling
A brownish, roughly rectangular oblong object, looking somewhat like a piece of dead wood, stored in a gleaming glass vessel
Now, by chemically analyzing each layer, scientists can trace pollution and stress levels throughout a whale’s life. These lifetime profiles help scientists better understand how human activities are affecting these marine mammals and their environment.
The Smithsonian’s whale and small cetacean warehouses hold the largest collection of marine mammal specimens in the world — including more than 1,000 whale earwax samples.
Museum researchers compare skulls of beaked whales in the collection.
Collections Reveal Connections
Exploring our collections reveals connections between objects, nature, and culture, often in unexpected ways.
A gleaming, round emerald jewel in a lavish, diamond-studded setting hangs against a dark blue background, with a fragment of a map of Africa in the background
Objects tell us where they have been, who made them, and how they moved from place to place.
Looking through museum collections, one can see the surprising results — sometimes deliberate, sometimes unintended — of trade and cultural exchange. From ancient times to the present, these global forces have left their mark on human cultures, and even other species.
A Journey of Change
Through trade and cultural exchange, objects created in one place end up somewhere new. Often, the objects take on new forms as artists blend their cultural influences.
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Emerald necklace, Beryl (variety emerald), diamond, platinum, Donated by Madeleine H. Murdock
Round emerald jewel in a diamond-studded setting
Explore this necklace’s journey from the emerald mines of Colombia to the National Gem and Mineral Collection in Washington, D.C.
COLOMBIA: Mined by the Spanish in the mid-1600s, then shipped to India and eventually Europe.
INDIA: Carved for the Moghul rulers around 1700, originally attached to a cloak or turban and later put in a diamond setting.
PARIS, FRANCE: Embellished with a diamond-and-platinum ornament in the 1920s.
NEW JERSEY, US: Purchased in the early 1930s as a brooch by a New Jersey woman, who later added the platinum-and-diamond chain.
WASHINGTON, DC, US: Given as a bequest to the Smithsonian’s National Gem and Mineral Collection in 2006.
Three Cultures, 5,000 Miles
Cultural exchange shaped this cloak, and took it on a journey partway around the world.
Russian mariners visiting the Aleutian Islands admired the locals’ lightweight waterproof garments made from sea lion guts, so they commissioned local Unangan seamstresses to sew gutskin cloaks in the European style.
Detail of the upper portion of the cloak showing elaborate embroidery-style decoration
Gutskin greatcoat, Unangan, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, circa 1835. Sea lion intestines and esophagus, cormorant feathers, wool, hair (unidentified), and swan or eagle down
Image of a light brown decorated cape edged in dark brown fur hanging within an exhibit case
The mariners gave these waterproof greatcoats as gifts to visiting captains and dignitaries, who brought the cloaks on their voyages. This cloak wound up in Moorea, one of the Society Islands in the South Pacific, where it was collected by the U.S. Exploring Expedition in 1839.
It’s a long voyage from the Aleutian Islands to the Society Islands...and from there to the .
Familiar Fish, New Location
Museum collections document change — like the movement of an invasive species into a new territory.
From the lionfish’s point of view, a small boost from humans opened a whole new ocean of opportunity.
Native to reefs and rocky crevasses in warm Indo-Pacific waters, lionfish were brought to the United States as aquarium pets because of their stunning stripes and impressive fins.
Photograph of three colorfully marked lionfish in a reef environment
Then, in the mid-1980s, a few unwanted pet lionfish were released off the Florida coast. With no local predators, they swiftly and aggressively expanded their range. Today, lionfish are wreaking havoc on warm waters across the western Atlantic.
Watch the rapid expansion of lionfish in the Atlantic Ocean.
Two jars, one large and one small, containing lionfish museum specimens preserved in liquid
Lionfish, like the Atlantic specimen shown above, have been collected by museum scientists off Curacao on reefs as deep as 700 feet (213.4 m), and may be disrupting diverse deep-reef ecosystems before scientists get the chance to study them.
Animated map showing the initial occurrence of lionfish near Miami in the 1980s and its rapid spread in the western Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean through 2020
Martha: the Last Passenger Pigeon
Today, the only way to study the passenger pigeon is to visit a museum collection.
In the late 1800s, the passenger pigeon numbered in the billions, and their colonies broke tree limbs wherever they roosted. But by 1914, they were extinct, due to overhunting by humans and habitat reduction for farming.
Migrating passenger pigeon flocks blotted out the sky for days. This woodcut from 1875 shows hunters in Louisiana shooting pigeons.
A historical woodcut of a passenger pigeon hunt with multiple men shooting up at a flock of pigeons as they fly overhead
Martha, believed to be the last individual of her species, died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. She was immediately packed in ice and shipped to the museum for preservation and future study.
The fate of these birds drives us to protect other vulnerable species.
A taxidermied passenger pigeon sitting on a branch with an all-black background
Explore Our Collections
Only a tiny fraction of our 147 million+ collection objects are on display at any time.
Skeleton of an ancient squirrel mounted in a lifelike pose, holding a nut in its claws
Early squirrel, Douglassciurus jeffersoni, 38–34 million years ago, Wyoming, "eating" Fossil walnuts, Juglans clarnensis, 45–43 million years ago, Oregon
The rest are “squirreled” away for safekeeping and future scientific research.
Still curious?
Take a closer look at your national museum’s collections to find
connections, pursue your passions, and explore our amazing world.
Anthropology collections stored at the Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland
Smithsonian zoologist Chris Meyer studies and cares for the over 46,000 cowrie shells in our collections, encompassing 223 species.
Smithsonian botanist Vicki Funk (center) conducts collections-based research in the United States National Herbarium with the next generation of students and scientists.
Early squirrel, Douglassciurus jeffersoni, 38–34 million years ago, Wyoming, "eating" Fossil walnuts, Juglans clarnensis, 45–43 million years ago, Oregon
