Tag: Natural History Museum

Bridging Worlds Through Knowledge: Celebrating International Museum Day 2026

Pensoft Publishers is proud to celebrate International Museum Day and its 2026 theme: Museums Uniting a Divided World.

Pensoft Publishers is proud to celebrate International Museum Day and its 2026 theme: Museums Uniting a Divided World. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the International Council of Museums, which stresses the enduring necessity of institutions that serve as custodians of our collective memory. In alignment with this year’s focus on fostering dialogue and peace, we have curated a special “Best of the Archive” collection. 

Here, we highlight recent research from a selection of open-access, museum-led journals that exemplify cultural diplomacy, repatriation, and the evolution of inclusive curation. These include Pensoft’s Natural History Collections and Museomics, Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” and Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna, alongside the ARPHA-supported Papahou: Records of the Auckland Museum and Tuhinga.

Empowering Communities in Mexico

In our journal Natural History Collections and Museomics, researchers from the Institute of Ecology in Mexico demonstrate how entomological outreach can transform scientific surveys into community connections. Focusing on dung beetle research in Oaxaca, Mexico, the authors moved beyond data extraction to prioritise ethical engagement with Indigenous communities. Specifically, they utilised a knowledge exchange approach known as intercambio de saberes, which integrated “Traditional Ecological Knowledge” into the scientific process. By donating outreach collections to local libraries and documenting names in Indigenous languages like Ayuujk and Tu’un Savi, the project created a shared space for cultural and scientific dialogue.

Examples of interactions with elementary school students using entomological outreach collections after workshop sessions in the communities of Tlaxiaco and Huajuapan de León. Image credit: Cruz-García et al.

Read more: Cruz-García BJ, Sandoval O, Cruz-García EJ, Escobar-Hernández F, Arriaga-Jiménez A (2025) From collections to connections: empowering communities through entomological outreach. Natural History Collections and Museomics 2: 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.2.147417 

Cultural Interaction in the Coral Sea

A review published in Tuhinga explores the “Connections across the Coral Sea” exhibition, which traces the movement of First Nations communities across Northern Queensland, the Torres Strait, and Papua New Guinea. This work, led by Safua Akeli Amaama of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, highlights a Cultural Interaction Sphere where about 100 cultural groups have traded resources and shared knowledge for centuries. The exhibition bridges geopolitical divides by showcasing shared cosmological stories, such as the star constellations known as Matariki in Aotearoa New Zealand and Usiam in the Torres Strait. This inclusive approach to curation honours the maritime technologies and spiritual connections that have long linked these diverse coastal regions.

Map of Northern Queensland coastline. Image credit: Safua Akeli Amaama.

Read more: Akeli Amaama S (2024) Connections across the Coral Sea: a story of movement (Queensland Museum, Australia). Tuhinga 35: 11-13. https://doi.org/10.3897/tuhinga.35.132206 

Citizen Science and Social Inclusion in Cyprus

The journal Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” highlights the power of public participation in its report on the first records of the Giant water bug in Cyprus. This research relied almost entirely on data provided by biodiversity enthusiasts through social media networks. Validating findings from non-scientists allows for the museum to foster a sense of inclusion and empowers local citizens to contribute to national biodiversity monitoring. This collaboration represents an important bridge between professional researchers and the broader community, ensuring that scientific knowledge is a collective achievement rather than an isolated one.

Photographs of Lethocerus sp. in situ. Records from Facebook Groups (FBG) and
Personal Communication (PC).

Read more: Hadjiconstantis M, Tziortzis I, Kunt KB (2023) On the importance of citizen-science: first records of the Giant water bug Lethocerus patruelis (Hemiptera, Belostomatidae) in Cyprus. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 66(2): 291-299. https://doi.org/10.3897/travaux.66.e94457 

Digital Repatriation from Aotearoa to West Africa

In Papahou: Records of the Auckland Museum, an article examines how open cultural heritage practices connect Aotearoa New Zealand with West Africa. Through partnerships with Wikimedia, the Auckland Museum is facilitating digital access to Nigerian and Ghanaian artifacts for their source communities. This initiative addresses questions of authority and authorship by allowing local advocates in Ghana and Nigeria to shape how their heritage is represented online. Indeed, by adopting a policy of “open by default, closed by exception”, the museum balances the democratisation of knowledge with the need for cultural safety and Indigenous sovereignty.

“Ikorodu Lagos State Town Hall Nigeria 1972 Designed by Michael Olutusen Onafowokan Part Plan Of Gallery 024” (circa 1961–1983). Wikimedia Commons.

Read more: Selvadurai A, Bayel H, Petercan AL (2026) Open access from Aotearoa to West Africa. Papahou: Records of the Auckland Museum 60: 11-15. https://doi.org/10.32912/papahou.60.187681 

Confronting Colonial History in Vienna

The Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna contributes to cultural diplomacy by critically examining the provenance of osteological collections acquired during 19th-century naval expeditions. This interdisciplinary study investigates the ethical challenges of human remains collected from East Africa and Madagascar. It is becoming increasingly clear that the documentation of the circumstances of acquisition and the presence of colonial violence in the historical record is necessary to the adoption of better guidelines for future engagement and repatriation. This transparent approach to difficult histories is essential for building trust and understanding between European institutions and the communities whose heritage they hold.

Different assessments of trauma in the Tanzania and Madagascar Collection. Image credit: Schattke et al.

Read more: Schattke C, Wolf D, Berner M, Eggers S (2026) Ships and Bones: Violence contributing to and consisting in osteological museum collections. Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna 127: 85-94. https://doi.org/10.3897/anhmw.182645 

Conclusion

As we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the International Council of Museums, we reaffirm our understanding that museums act as bridges across cultural, social, and geopolitical divides. Through the articles highlighted here, we see museums actively fostering dialogue, understanding, inclusion, and peace within and between communities worldwide.

For more museum-led research, make sure to follow Pensoft’s journals on social media:

Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna begins publishing with Pensoft

The Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna (ANHMW) has launched its first issue since transitioning to the ARPHA scholarly publishing platform and entering a co-publishing partnership with Pensoft. 

The open-access, peer-reviewed journal publishes original research relating to the museum’s scientific collections and ongoing projects, covering anthropology, biosciences, earth sciences, genetics, prehistory, and the museum’s history.

journal mockup.

Established in 1836 as the Annalen des Wiener Museums der Naturgeschichte, the journal is one of Europe’s oldest periodicals, maintaining a longstanding tradition of scientific publishing. Over the years, the journal experienced various iterations and name changes and, in 1980, it was divided into three series. Now, following the transition to Pensoft, these series have been reunited under one title.

ANHMW operates as a diamond open-access journal, allowing authors to publish freely thanks to the generous support of the Natural History Museum Vienna. Co-published by Pensoft and the museum, all articles are available in multiple formats including HTML, JATS XML, and high-resolution full-colour PDF. 

journal mockup.

Content is enhanced semantically and converted into Linked Open Data and OpenBiodiv Biodiversity knowledge graphs. To meet nomenclatural standards for electronic publication, all articles will be indexed and archived in repositories such as Zenodo, CLOCKSS, Portico, and more, with nomenclatural acts registered in ZooBank.

The joint Editors-in-Chief, Dr Anna Weinmann, Mag Andrea Krapf, and Dr Nesrine Akkari, expressed enthusiasm for the journal’s digital transformation. Andrea Krapf commented, “I am very proud to accompany such a venerable and traditional journal as the Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien on its journey into the digital future under its new English title, Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna. In Pensoft, we have found a reliable partner to publish the journal under a modern diamond open access model, making it thus more attractive to the scientific community and the general public.”

Dr Nesrine Akkari said, “Since joining the editorial team of the Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien as the editor-in-chief of Serie B in 2018, I have witnessed continuous attempts to modernise the journal’s editorial workflow and publications. The idea of moving to Pensoft as a co-publisher was discussed and I am delighted that our managers support it.

“As both a scientist and an editor, I recognise the importance of the Annals as part of the museum’s legacy, while I also recognize the many advantages of the collaboration with Pensoft. I believe that this change marks a new era for the Annals and that, by combining modernity and tradition, our journal will continue to thrive.”

Prof Lyubomir Penev, CEO and Founder of Pensoft, welcomed the partnership: “We are thrilled to welcome the Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna into the Pensoft family of next-generation scientific journals. ARPHA’s publishing solutions will allow the journal to modernise and find new audiences.”

The first issue is now available on the ANHMW’s new website, including an editorial by the Editors-in-Chief reflecting on the past and future of this historic journal.

Sir Charles Lyell’s historical fossils kept at London’s Natural History Museum accessible online

The Lyell Project team: First row, seated from left to right: Martha Richter (Principal Curator in Charge of Vertebrates), Consuelo Sendino (with white coat, curator of bryozoans holding a Lyell fossil gastropod from Canaries), Noel Morris (Scientific Associate of Invertebrates), Claire Mellish (Senior Curator of arthropods), Sandra Chapman (curator of reptiles) and Emma Bernard (curator of fishes, holding the lectotype of Cephalaspis lyelli). Second row, standing on from left to right: Jill Darrell (curator of cnidarians), Zoe Hughes (curator of brachiopods) and Kevin Webb (science photographer). Photo by Nelly Perez-Larvor.

More than 1,700 animal and plant specimens from the collection of eminent British geologist Sir Charles Lyell – known as the pioneer of modern geology – were organised, digitised and made openly accessible via the NHM Data Portal in a pilot project, led by Dr Consuelo Sendino, curator at the Department of Earth Sciences (Natural History Museum, London). They are described in a data paper published in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal.

Curator of plants Peta Hayes (left) and curator of bryozoans Consuelo Sendino (right) looking at a Lyell fossil plant from Madeira in the collection area. Photo by Mark Lewis.

The records contain the data from the specimens’ labels (species name, geographical details, geological age and collection details), alongside high-resolution photographs, most of which were ‘stacked’ with the help of specialised software to re-create a 3D model.

Sir Charles Lyell’s fossil collection comprises a total of 1,735 specimens of fossil molluscs, filter-feeding moss animals and fish, as well as 51 more recent shells, including nine specimens originally collected by Charles Darwin from Tierra del Fuego or Galapagos, and later gifted to the geologist. The first specimen of the collection was deposited in distant 1846 by Charles Lyell himself, while the last one – in 1980 by one of his heirs.

With as much as 95% of the specimens having been found at the Macaronesian archipelagos of the Canaries and Madeira and dating to the Cenozoic era, the collection provides a key insight into the volcano formation and palaeontology of Macaronesia and the North Atlantic Ocean. By digitising the collection and making it easy to find and access for researchers from around the globe, the database is to serve as a stepping stone for studies in taxonomy, stratigraphy and volcanology at once.

Sites where the Earth Sciences’ Lyell Collection specimens originate.

“The display of this data virtually eliminates the need for specimen handling by researchers and will greatly speed up response time to collection enquiries,” explains Dr Sendino.

Furthermore, the pilot project and its workflow provide an invaluable example to future digitisation initiatives. In her data paper, Dr Sendino lists the limited resources she needed to complete the task in just over a year.

In terms of staff, the curator was joined by MSc student Teresa Máñez (University of Valencia, Spain) for six weeks while locating the specimens and collecting all the information about them; volunteer Jane Barnbrook, who re-boxed 1,500 specimens working one day per week for a year; NHM’s science photographer Kevin Webb and University of Lisbon’s researcher Carlos Góis-Marques, who imaged the specimens; and a research associate, who provided broad identification of the specimens, working one day per week for two months. Each of the curators for the collections, where the Lyell specimens were kept, helped Dr Sendino for less than a day. On the other hand, the additional costs comprised consumables such as plastazote, acid-free trays, archival pens, and archival paper for new labels.

“The success of this was due to advanced planning and resource tracking,” comments Dr Sendino.
“This is a good example of reduced cost for digitisation infrastructure creation maintaining a high public profile for digitisation,” she concludes.

 

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Original source:

Sendino C (2019) The Lyell Collection at the Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, London (UK). Biodiversity Data Journal 7: e33504. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e33504

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About NHM Data Portal:

Committed to open access and open science, the Natural History Museum (London, UK) has launched the Data Portal to make its research and collections datasets available online. It allows anyone to explore, download and reuse the data for their own research.

The portal’s main dataset consists of specimens from the Museum’s collection database, with 4,224,171 records from the Museum’s Palaeontology, Mineralogy, Botany, Entomology and Zoology collections.