Natural History Museum
The Museum will be closed from 10 AM to 1 PM on 12 March 2026, Thursday. Normal operations will resume from 1 PM onwards.
Research //
The Biodiversity Histories Collection (BH Collection) of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum is the custodian of the Museum’s non-specimen materials related to Singapore’s natural history. The BH Collection has over 100,000 objects, with many of these originating from Museum staff and individuals associated with the Museum. These materials consist of three sub-collections: the Visual Sub-collection, the Library and Archive Sub-collection, and the Oral History Sub-collection.
Within the collection are the photographic slides and prints (visual), drawings, catalogues and field notebooks in physical form, which the BH unit is digitising to make them more accessible to a wider audience. The collection continues to grow as the Museum receives materials from oral history interviewees, collaborators and members of the public.
Through photographs, handwritten notes, textual materials and other records, the BH Collection reveals how scientific knowledge was built and obtained, often through collaboration, long-term observation, and close engagement with landscapes and communities.
The BH Collection was concurrently established in 2022 in response to a growing recognition of the importance of non-specimen materials and how they are increasingly critical to understanding the natural heritage of Singapore and the region. The Museum was already a custodian of visual, textual and other non-specimen materials related to its research activities but which were dispersed across other Museum units.
The creation of the collection brought these materials together under a unified curatorial framework, ensuring their long-term preservation and accessibility. Materials were consolidated within the Museum as well as through donations from researchers, collaborators, and other persons associated with the Museum. These now form a growing collection that supports the Museum’s research, exhibition and education priorities.
The collection currently consists of three main sub-collections: