Booth Museum Of Natural History, Brighton

The Booth Museum of Natural History in Brighton is a municipally-owned museum managed by the Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust. Established in 1874 by naturalist Edward Thomas Booth, the museum is renowned for its extensive collection of Victorian taxidermy, particularly British birds, presented in lifelike dioramas. Booth's innovative display method, which aimed to recreate the natural habitats of the birds, was pioneering and influenced the presentation of natural history in other museums across Britain.

Initially focusing on British birds, Booth aspired to collect every species found in Britain, including variations in sex, age, and plumage. His collection, displayed in over 300 dioramas, remains a central feature of the museum. Booth donated the museum to the city of Brighton in 1890, with the condition that the dioramas not be altered. In 1971, the museum formally became a Museum of Natural History.

Today, the Booth Museum houses a vast and diverse collection, including approximately 700,000 insects, 73,000 vertebrate specimens, 35,000 fossils and minerals, 60,000 plant specimens, and 5,000 microscopic slides. Among its notable collections are the herbarium and geological specimens of Sir Alexander Crichton, a physician to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, and an extensive collection of South and Central American butterflies collected by Arthur Hall over 13 expeditions.

The museum's bird collection, one of the largest in the country, is complemented by a skeleton collection from Fredrick W Lucas, featuring both birds and mammals, including primates, dolphins, and extinct species like the dodo and thylacine. The museum's largest skeleton is that of an orca found beached in 1935. Other unique exhibits include fossils, minerals, and Victorian curiosities such as a hoax merman and a "Toad in the Hole." In 2020, an unknown species of pterosaur was discovered in the museum's fossil collection, highlighting its ongoing significance in the field of natural history.