Collections
The Linnean Society of London is the world’s oldest active biological society and has in its care several important collections, including those of the Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus, and the Society’s founder, Sir James Edward Smith.
Designated a collection of outstanding national importance by the Arts Council England in 2014, the holdings of the Linnean Society (which include library, archive and biological specimen material) provide an unsurpassed resource for the study of natural history.
Forthcoming Closures
Please note the library and archives will be closed, and unavailable to readers, all day on March 4. This is to allow our new exhibition to be installed. We apologise for this inconvenience.
Digitised Collections Unavailable
We are excited to be moving our Online Collections (digitised specimens and archives) to a new platform. However, this move means there may be a few weeks where neither platform will be available. This downtime is anticipated to start on 28 February. We look forward to launching our new digital collections platform, Linnean Online. We will let you know when it is ready, but in the meantime, apologies for any inconvenience.
The Linnaean and Smithian Herbaria can be found on JSTOR Global Plants (individual or institutional subscription required).
The Library and Archives are open Tuesdays–Fridays, 10am–5pm.
If you would like to make an appointment, please email library@linnean.org. To allow adequate time to retrieve material, we ask that appointments are made at least 48 hours in advance, if possible.
Visits to our biological specimen collections must be overseen by our honorary curators, who work at other institutions. If you wish to arrange such a visit, please contact the Collections team at least a fortnight in advance.
