{"id":6595,"date":"2026-07-27T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/?p=6595"},"modified":"2026-07-30T07:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:22:40","slug":"museummonday-timeline-of-exhibitions-at-the-british-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/museummonday-timeline-of-exhibitions-at-the-british-library\/","title":{"rendered":"#MuseumMonday: Timeline of exhibitions at the British Library"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The British Library<\/a> is perhaps best known as one of the world’s great repositories of books, manuscripts and historical documents, but its collections also provide a remarkable window into the natural world and our understanding of it. Across its history, the Library has explored subjects ranging from natural history and evolution to medicine, exploration, environmental change and the relationship between humans and the wider world. Its exhibitions have brought together manuscripts, artworks, maps, photographs, scientific publications and other treasures to tell stories about both scientific discovery and our changing relationship with nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog post provides a living chronology of wildlife- and science-based exhibitions at the British Library, bringing together exhibitions that have explored the natural sciences and the people, ideas and discoveries that have shaped them. From historic accounts of plants and animals to exhibitions examining evolution, climate change, medicine and scientific innovation, these displays demonstrate the extraordinary breadth of material held within the Library’s collections. They also reveal how science has been recorded, communicated and interpreted across centuries. Please note, I am only including those exhibitions that have been held post-2000. This list is also a working progress and will be updated from time to time, especially when new exhibitions are announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope that through time, this chronology will offer an opportunity to look at the changing themes and priorities of science communication at the British Library. We must consider how our understanding of the natural world has developed, how scientific knowledge is presented to the public, and how subjects such as biodiversity and environmental change have increasingly entered the cultural conversation as a result. Together, these exhibitions form an intriguing history of science and natural history at one of Britain’s most important cultural institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2014<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Beautiful Science: <\/em>Picturing Data, Inspiring Insight<\/td>20th February to 26th May 2014<\/td><\/tr>
2023<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Animals: Art, Science & Sound<\/a><\/td>21st April to 28th August 2023<\/td><\/tr>
20<\/strong>25<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Unearthed: The Power of Gardening<\/td>2nd May to 10th August 2025<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last updated on: 30th July 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The British Library is perhaps best known as one of the world’s great repositories of books, manuscripts and historical documents, but its collections also provide a remarkable window into the natural world and our understanding of it. Across its history,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[259],"tags":[260,8,221,31,229,178,25,72],"class_list":["post-6595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-museummonday","tag-museummonday","tag-books","tag-british-library","tag-conservation","tag-exhibitions","tag-history-of-science","tag-natural-history","tag-zoology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/British-Library-scaled.png?fit=2560%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pafnrI-1In","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6595"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6600,"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6595\/revisions\/6600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenallain.co.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}