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National Museum of Natural History

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For National Pollinator Week, Learn Why the National Museum of Natural History is Using a State-of-the-Art Conveyor Belt System to Digitize Thousands of Insect Specimens

The ongoing effort captures high-quality images and collection data in seconds, creating an online database of bees, beetles, butterflies and flies

A man in a grey short sits in a lab setting, in front of a microscope and a computer screen.

Meet the National Museum of Natural History Volunteer Preserving Prehistory One Microfossil at a Time

Carlos Savignano is part of a dedicated group of FossiLab volunteers preparing Smithsonian fossils for display and future research

Brown mussel shells sit in a white box with orange paper underneath.

Interested in Using Museum Collections to Better Understand Freshwater Mussels? There’s Now an App for That

A new online resource combines data from 45 different natural history collections to provide easy-to-use information on America’s threatened freshwater mussels

A colorful worm is lit up against a black background

How 3D Worms Provide a Peek Into Historic Smithsonian Collection

Thanks to cutting-edge technology, Smithsonian scientists provide worldwide access to some of the museum's most delicate specimens

Multiple pages of paper adorned with brown and yellow pressed plant specimens sit, one after the other, on a dark gray table-like surface. In the background are two people with purple gloves on.

2022 in Review: The National Herbarium Goes Digital

In May, the museum completed a groundbreaking digitization process that brought nearly four million pressed plants online.

White-colored, fossil ammonite laying horizontally on top of a rock with a black background

What's Next for the 1.2 Million Prehistoric Fossils Now at Smithsonian

Digitization will soon allow researchers around the globe to access the latest specimens in the National Fossil Collection

These bumblebees were part of a mass digitization project at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Pinned underneath each bee is important information about where the bees were collected, when and by whom. (Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Institution)

Digitization Allows Public Access to Smithsonian’s Hidden Collections

2.8 millions items in the National Museum of Natural History's collections went open access on Feb. 25.

Researchers at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History traveled the world and made many new discoveries this year—including 18 new species of pelican spiders. (Nikolai Scharff)

Check Out Some of Our Most Popular Discoveries From 2018

Celebrate the new year with some of our most popular scientific discoveries from 2018.

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