---
title: "Natural history"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:46:23.045729+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Natural history museums, which evolved from cabinets of curiosities, played an important role in the emergence of professional biological disciplines and research programs. Particularly in the 19th century, scientists began to use their natural history collections as teaching tools for advanced students and the basis for their own morphological research.

== Societies ==

The term "natural history" alone, or sometimes together with archaeology, forms the name of many national, regional, and local natural history societies that maintain records for animals—including birds (ornithology), insects (entomology) and mammals (mammalogy)—fungi (mycology), plants (botany), and other organisms. They may also have geological and microscopical sections.
Examples of these societies in Britain include the Natural History Society of Northumbria founded in 1829, London Natural History Society (1858), Birmingham Natural History Society (1859), British Entomological and Natural History Society founded in 1872, Glasgow Natural History Society, Manchester Microscopical and Natural History Society established in 1880, Whitby Naturalists' Club founded in 1913, Scarborough Field Naturalists' Society and the Sorby Natural History Society, Sheffield, founded in 1918. The growth of natural history societies was also spurred due to the growth of British colonies in tropical regions with numerous new species to be discovered. Many civil servants took an interest in their new surroundings, sending specimens back to museums in the Britain. (See also: Indian natural history)
Societies in other countries include the American Society of Naturalists and Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists. The Ecological Society of America launched its "Natural History Section" in 2010, using the tagline "the heart and soul of ecology."
Professional societies have recognized the importance of natural history and have initiated new sections in their journals specifically for natural history observations to support the discipline. These include "Natural History Field Notes" of Biotropica, "The Scientific Naturalist" of Ecology, "From the Field" of Waterbirds, and the "Natural History Miscellany section" of the American Naturalist.

== Benefits of natural history ==
Natural history observations have contributed to scientific questioning and theory formation. Such observations contribute to how conservation priorities are determined. For individuals, mental health benefits can result from regular and active observation of chosen components of nature, and these reach beyond the benefits derived from passively walking through natural areas.

== See also ==

Evolutionary history of life
History of evolutionary thought
Natural history group – Untreated subjects in a drug trial
Natural history of disease – Progression of a person's medical condition
Natural science – Branch of science about the natural world
Naturalism (philosophy) – Belief that only natural laws and forces operate in the universe
Nature documentary – Documentary genre
Nature study – Education movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Nature writing – Nonfiction or fiction prose or poetry about the natural environment,  literary genre
Russian naturalists

== References ==

== Further reading ==

== External links ==

A History of the Ecological Sciences by Frank N. Egerton
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 07 (of 10), London: Macmillan and Co., 1904