Through our Online Collections, we are providing worldwide access to our priceless collections of specimens, manuscripts, letters, books and artwork.

Please note, the specimen names reflect the historical 'filed as' names that were attached to the specimens when they arrived at the Linnean Society, and do not necessarily correspond with the current/accepted names. If you are unable to locate a specimen, please contact curators@linnean.org for assistance. All of the information for each item/specimen is available to all users without logging in. Registered users do not have access to additional information or downloadable images. Permission to re-use images is required: please email images@linnean.org, or go to Reprographics and Image Use.

Browse our Online Collections

• Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778)
  • Plants, algae, and fungi (14,000)
  • Fish (168)
  • Shells (1,564)
  • Insects (3,198)
  • Correspondence
  • Manuscripts
  • Linnaean Annotated Library
• James Edward Smith (1759-1828)
  • Plants, algae, and fungi (27,075)
  • Correspondence
• Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)
  • Notebooks
• Francis Buchanan-Hamilton (1762-1829)
  • Nepalese drawings
  • Mysore drawings
  • Bengal drawings
• Alexander Anderson (1748-1811)
  • Manuscripts

Specimen collections

Around 40,000 specimens from the collection of Carl Linnaeus, purchased from the estate of the Society's first President, Sir James Edward Smith, as well as Smith's own herbarium.

The library, correspondence and manuscripts of Carl Linnaeus

Linnaeus' private library of some 1,600 volumes, over 4,000 letters from 600 correspondents, and circa 300 manuscripts.

The correspondence of James Edward Smith

Over 3,500 scientific and personal letters of our founder and first President.

Alfred Russel Wallace's notebooks

Ten manuscript notebooks, including two field notebooks and four journals in which Wallace records his travels around the Malay archipelago.

Buchanan-Hamilton collection

A series of watercolours of Nepalese and Indian plants and animals, probably painted by local artists, which were collected by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton between 1794 and 1815.