Expeditions and Endeavours

This collection brings together a rich cross section of artworks from the Library of the Natural History Museum—including many previously unpublished images—each of which illuminate an incredible journey in the pursuit of observing and documenting the natural world. Seminal voyages represented include all three of Captain Cook’s voyages to the Pacific—the first being on HMS Endeavour, Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery and Terra Nova expeditions to Antarctica, and the Challenger expedition which changed the nature of oceanographic and marine exploration. There are also many stunning illustrations from lone naturalist-explorers such as William Bartram and John Abbot, and Paul  Hermann who captured the natural history of Sri Lanka, the colorful sketchbooks from Olivia Tonge’s travels to India, and the notebooks of Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace while exploring the Amazon.

Andrea Hart is Special Collections Manager at the Natural History Museum where she has worked for over 15 years. Paul Martyn Cooper is a Special Collections Librarian at the Natural History Museum.