Specimens

From the 17th century onwards, waves of natural history collectors set out from many countries to different parts of the world to discover what animals were out there. Some of these specimens, such as the "wet" specimens, were preserved in alcohol in natural history collections for scientists to study and marvel at. These collections are continually added to today. Why are they kept? What do scientists learn from these specimens? How are they used? "Specimens" answers all these questions and more in a lively and informative story about these specimens; their history, their use and their preservation. Illustrated with awe-inspiring images of a selection of the 22 million "wet" specimens housed at the Natural History Museum's Darwin Centre, London, this is both a photographic and scientific encounter.