Collections Portal
Online databases and documentation
The collections portal presents a sample of the heritage collections held at the Natural History Museum, which are divided into two databases: one covers the natural sciences, the other the arts, publishing, the history of science, and the humanities and social sciences.
The portal also offers thematic content, historical and documentary resources and biographies of people linked to the museum and its collections, which, like the catalogues, are regularly updated.
Although frequently enriched and updated, these databases do not necessarily reflect the current state of knowledge.
Furthermore, as museum collections have been built up over the course of world history (wars, colonial conquests, looting, globalisation, regulation of hunting, excavations and collections, trafficking, etc.), the collections may contain items that are culturally, spiritually or ethically ‘sensitive’ and likely to offend certain audiences.
Therefore, while the original titles, archives and old labels that accompany them are essential for documentation purposes, they may sometimes contain offensive and reprehensible vocabulary that is now considered racist. This should be understood as historical evidence and material, and in no way as a vehicle for discourse.
How to share – or not – these sensitive collections owned by the State and local authorities, whether online or in exhibitions, is at the heart of the considerations of the institutions that preserve them. The museum remains attentive to feedback from the public.
The essential research work (historical, scientific analyses and studies, surveys, etc.) carried out on the collections aims in particular to contextualise as accurately as possible the history of objects that were sometimes removed in violent circumstances and to provide documentation that is as comprehensive and accurate as possible for all audiences.
