Research & Collections

BE ADVISED: We are currently experiencing an issue with our online ticket store on some mobile devices. If you are unable to complete your order, please call our Call Center at 213-763-3466 between 9:00am to 5:00pm for assistance. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Research and Collections

Photograph of Butterfly specimens in the NHM collection

Our Collections

NHM has, wait for it, 35 million real objects and artifacts. Explore them online!

See what we've got

Our Research

There are dozens of scientists and historians on staff, protecting our records of the planet, and making new discoveries all the time.

What our experts are up to

austin hendy looking at specimens in collections research and collections

Recent highlights

Research and Collections

Elephant Hill Community Nature Celebration and Habitat Survey

Join community members and scientists, Saturday, October 14, to celebrate and study nature on Elephant Hill, an open space in North East L.A. valuable to humans and wildlife.

Fire north of Montrose-La Crescenta, November 1933.

How Los Angeles Moved Uncomfortably Close to Mountain Wildfires

A look at L.A.'s growth toward wildfires through historic images from the Seaver Center

Jurassic Perks

How Jurassic Park helped spark a boom in new dinosaur discoveries

Genus Pseudopotamilla polychaete by Leslie Harris

An Ocean of Worms

Discover an underwater world of incredible marine worms in the ancient rocks off L.A.’s coast

Stepping Stones Across Oceans

NHM’s Ichthyology Curator visits two remote islands to understand how fish move around our planet.

Indian common crow butterfly observation from iNaturalist

The Beginnings of Butterflies

A sweeping new study by over 80 scientists including NHM researcher Vijay Barve identifies that butterflies originated in North or Central America 100 million years ago.