The center joins other world-class repositories like the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
"This place is a hub for scientists," said Clare Valentine, formerly curator of the sponge collection and now head of zoology collections. "You have to see the original specimen to work on it (a particular species) yourself. Sometimes there is much more information—color, texture and even smell—that can be gleaned from examining a specimen face to face."
Collections Dating Back 500 Years
Visitors can take behind-the-scenes tours of the center's collections and attend the frequent scientific presentations about research.
The Darwin Center opened last September as part of a long-term plan to make the Natural History Museum's entire collection—70 million specimens—accessible to the public.
Phase two, scheduled for 2007, will provide space for the museum's entomology and botanical collections—28 million insects and 6 million plants respectively.
The Darwin Center is rich in historical material. Although the bulk of the collection was acquired during the past 200 years, some samples date back to the 15th century. The collection originated with the eminent 18th-century physician Sir Hans Sloane, who had amassed 3,500 fish, amphibians and crustaceans.
Along with Darwin's collection, the center also includes those of other scientific legends like Carl Linnaeus, Sir Charles Lyell, and Alfred Russel Wallace. The center houses sea bass from the Marquesas Islands and unicorn fish from Tahiti along with 500 other fish that Captain James Cook collected on the HMS Endeavour.
Museum scientists continue to gather specimens from around the world and fill gaps in the collections. Even in this age of molecular analyses and huge genetic databases, the creatures themselves still provide a benchmark.
"We need the physical specimens because the form, the morphology, is the basis of our understanding," Crimmen said. "Having the actual bodies means that you will always have samples available for new analytical techniques. Part of the curator's job is to defend the long-term view and ensure that there are specimens for scientists to use well into the future."
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