Natural History Museum, London

The Natural History Museum, formerly British Museum (Natural History), is a British natural science museum that has national and international responsibilities for taxonomic and associated research based on its outstanding collection of specimens and its extensive libraries. It is located near the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum in South Kensington, London. The museum was formerly an integral part of the British Museum, which originated in 1753 when the government acquired the collections of Sir Hans Sloane. Under the superintendency of Richard Owen, the natural history collections were moved to the current premises, which opened to the public in 1881. There is also a branch museum at Tring, Hertfordshire, 30 miles (50 km) northwest of London. Known as the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, it was bequeathed to the nation by the 2nd Baron Rothschild in the early 20th century. Worldwide marine, worldwide terrestrial. Zoology invertebrates, Palaeontology, Botany, Zoology vertebrates, Geology, Anthropology, Other geo/biodiversity, Extraterrestrial