The Natural History Museum is a museum in South Kensington, London, that houses one of the world's most important collections of natural history specimens, covering botany, zoology, entomology, mineralogy and palaeontology. Its origins lie in the collections of the physician Sir Hans Sloane, which were passed to the British Museum. The anatomist Richard Owen, superintendent of the natural history departments there, campaigned for a separate building, and the architect Alfred Waterhouse designed the Romanesque palace of terracotta that opened in 1881. A cast of a Diplodocus skeleton long dominated the main hall until it was replaced by the skeleton of a blue whale in 2017. The museum is also an active research institution.
Before and after
- 1 November 1880Birth of Alfred Wegener
- from 20 December 1880 to 23 March 1881First Boer War
- 31 December 1880Birth of George Marshall
- 1881Launch of Los Angeles Times
- 1881Founding of Natural History Museum
- from 1881 to 1899Mahdist War
- 1881Founding of Kinshasa
- 1881Birth of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
- 28 January 1881Death of Fyodor Dostoyevsky
More in Art, literature & culture
- 1863Origins of Baháʼí Faith
- 26 November 1865Publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- 1871The Internationale
- from 1886 to 1905Rise of Post-impressionism
- 31 March 1889Construction of Eiffel Tower
- from 6 April 1896 to 15 April 18961896 Summer Olympics
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.