The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County are part of a worldwide project to map the total collections from 73 of the world’s largest natural history museums in 28 countries. Museums have traditionally acted as independent organizations, but this new approach imagines a global collection composed of all the collections of all the world’s museums. This is the first step of an ambitious effort to inventory these holdings in an accessible, meaningful way that expands knowledge and improves access for researchers everywhere.

To better understand this immense, untapped resource, lead scientists from a dozen large natural history museums, including NHMLAC, created an innovative but simple framework to rapidly evaluate the size and composition of natural history museum collections.

For information, visit nhmlac.org/press/global-natural-history-initiative-builds-groundbreaking-database-address-21st-century.