A page of beetle specimens with the details of BHL Day 2026 overlaid.
How do scientists use biodiversity literature?
At #BHLDay2026, Lauren Hughes, Principal Curator In Charge @nhm-london.bsky.social, will explore how BHL is the bridge between taxonomy @marinespecies.bsky.social & the evidence behind it.
📅 29 April: London + online
🎟️ Register now: bit.ly/bhlday2026
Two lizards (one colourful red blue and brown lizard and one striped brown and cream) sitting amongst rocks and grass.
"As regards coloration, the species is one of the most beautiful." The Peloponnesian Lizard, Lacerta peloponnesiaca, illustrated by James Green in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1911). www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31251864
An historic illustration of a white bat hanging upside down from a tree branch.
🦇 Happy #BatAppreciationDay! The ghost bat (Macroderma gigas), native to Australia, gets its name from its extremely thin wing membrane, which gives it a ghostly appearance at night. #SciArt: Proc Zool Soc London (1880) on BHL via @nhm-london.bsky.social: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28522650
An historic illustration of pink flowers, grasses and butterflies
An historic illustration of yellow flowers.
An historic illustration of a water lily
An historic illustration of pink flowers.
🌻 Spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere! To celebrate, we present this spectacular collection of watercolour & pencil illustrations of "British Flowers" by Elizabeth Wharton and Margaret Wharton [1793-1811] on BHL via Oak Spring Garden Foundation: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography... 🧪
At #BHLDay2026, Qiangian Hiris Gu, Ben Hartley & Vincent Smith @nhm-london.bsky.social will share their work transforming the biodiversity literature on BHL into structured, machine-actionable data at a planetary scale. 🧪 🌍️ 🌱
📅 29 April 2-5pm BST | London + online
🎟️ Register now: bit.ly/bhlday2026
We’re hosting a BHL symposium at the @tdwg.org conference in Oslo this September.
Working with BHL data, tools, or content? We’d love you to be part of it. In-person and virtual talks welcome.
🔗 www.tdwg.org/conferences/...
Have you discovered the fabulous Bizarre Beasts show?
Many episodes trace the scientific discovery and early descriptions of #BizarreBeasts through the literature. Look out for references to the Biodiversity Heritage Library! (Thanks @bizarrebeastsshow.bsky.social for crediting BHL!)
We’re delighted to be joined by speakers from @nhm-london.bsky.social, @rbgkew.bsky.social, @theul.bsky.social, @usflibraries.bsky.social, @usf.edu, @dumbartonoaks.bsky.social, @glasgow.ac.uk, @mfnberlin.bsky.social, and @wikimediaaotearoa.bsky.social. #BHLDay2026 Register: bit.ly/bhlday2026
Join us at #BHLDay2026: “Towards a Biodiversity Data Ecosystem Built on BHL Data”
🌱 AI + structured biodiversity literature
🌱 OCR + multilingual data challenges
🌱 Real-world systems like WoRMS
🌱 Teaching + storytelling with BHL
📅 29 April | London + online
🎟️ Register: bit.ly/bhlday2026
🪺 🐰 May your weekend be filled with beautiful, colorful eggs! Throwback to 1890 and Maynard's #Eggs of North American Birds. 🥚🌷
📸 : Biodiversity Heritage Library
🔗 : https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13764187
#ThrowbackThursday #TBT #History #Archive #CleanWater #Easter #Oology #Birds
The original lithograph and description of Gilbert’s Potoroo ‘Hypsiprymnus gilberti’ in Gould’s Mammals of Australia. Source: Biodiversity Heritage Library Australia.
The original description of Gilbert’s Rat-Kangaroo (Potoroo) in Gould’s Mammals of Australia 1863..
Gilbert’s Potoroo photograph. Copyright Dick Walker/GPAG
Black Rat photograph. Copyright Jiri Lochman
Do you think #GilbertsPotoroo looks like a rat? People sometimes send us photos of Black Rats wondering if they are Gilbert’s Potoroo or see pictures & say “Yuck, it looks like a rat”. And Potoroos & Bettongs are sometimes known as Rat-Kangaroos… #WorldRatDay #NotARat
@bhl-au.bsky.social
Illustration of microscopic image
Cuff's solar microscope in camera obscura room (1764–8) by Martin Frobenius Ledermüller, from Mikroskopische Gemüths- und Augen-Ergötzung.
Source: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives / Biodiversity Heritage Library
pdimagearchive.org/images/b8f01fc9-ae26-4a9...
#micrography
Follow along in the dramatic saga of
@biodivlibrary.bsky.social BHL's Battle of the Bots and how the Technical Team is leveraging tools to prevent site disruption!
Promotional graphic for the BHL at 20 Anniversary Series featuring the title “Osbert Salvin’s Central American Field Diary” over a background of a handwritten page with a painted illustration of a bird’s head and leg, alongside a “BHL 20” anniversary logo.
Handwritten notes. Hand-painted birds. A 19th-century field diary that shaped one of the most ambitious natural history works ever published.
Explore Osbert Salvin’s Central American field diary in our #BHLat20 series. 🧪📖🐦🌎
🔗 blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/04/salv...
You can view Cuvier's 'De l'histoire naturelle des cetaces' (1836) on BHL. The link to the narwhal is here: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/55146782 🐋🦄
Hand-coloured 19th-century illustration of multiple bird eggs with varied speckled patterns and tones, showing differences across species.
Hand-coloured 19th-century illustration of bird eggs in shades of blue, green, and brown, showing natural variation across species.
Hand-coloured 19th-century illustration of bird eggs arranged in a circular composition, highlighting variation in colour and surface pattern.
Hand-coloured 19th-century illustration of multiple bird eggs with speckled patterns and tones.
🥚 Bird eggs are not just beautiful; they’re essential scientific data.
This remarkable 1856 work, Zur Fortpflanzungsgeschichte der gesammten Vögel, features 100 hand-coloured plates used by early naturalists to document and compare species.
Explore: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/48578 #Easter
An historic images of many beetle specimens
Join us for #BHLDay2026: “Towards a Biodiversity Data Ecosystem Built on BHL Data” a public symposium exploring how biodiversity literature powers data, research, and discovery.
📅 Wed 29 April; 2-5pm BST
📍 London + Online
🎟️ View the program + register: bit.ly/bhlday2026
An historic illustration of pink and red irises.
We’re delighted to welcome Vanderbilt University Heard Libraries as a new BHL Member. Alongside membership, @vanderbilt.edu is contributing significant in-kind technical support, strengthening BHL’s infrastructure & long-term sustainability.
Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/03/vand...
Image of a selection of eggs of California birds, arranged in a progression of colors and shades from greenish-blue to pink, many with a scattering of dark speckles. From the Biodiversity Heritage Library acount on Flickr.
Why dye Easter eggs when Nature provides?
(via @biodivlibrary.bsky.social 's Flickr account)
Thanks for sharing @brucearthursaz.bsky.social. This page is from "The Journal of the Museum of Comparative Oology" 1919-1922: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33270687
An historic illustration of bright red, yellow, and pink flowers.
🎉 To celebrate BHL’s 20th anniversary, we’re inviting our community to help sustain and strengthen it.
If BHL supports your work or curiosity, please consider supporting it in return.
👉 Support BHL’s next chapter: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLat20
#BHLat20 #ILoveBHL 🧪 🌏 📖 🌱
Thank you for your kind words @entiminae.bsky.social. That's why we do what we do. 💚
Happy 20th Anniversary!
As a taxonomist, I am incredibly grateful for your existence.
I access your information nearly on a daily basis for several different projects including #ColeopteraDeColombia.
The #Biodiversity world would not be the same without you!
Cheers!
#BHLat20 #ILoveBHL
Happy Birthday, BHL!
Thanks for making my life so much easier.
An historic illustration of two brown birds sitting on a leafy green branch.
Want more from BHL? 🌱 📚 🧪 🌏
Join 10,000+ subscribers and get stories, discoveries, and collection highlights delivered to your inbox.
A new issue is coming soon.
Subscribe: lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/YKrBfqY/B...
My favourite question to ask librarians and archivists is:
"What is your favourite item in your collection?"
This week I turned that question into an entire blog series.
🎈 What better way to celebrate BHL's 20th birthday? 🎊
Check it out: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/tag/bhlat20
So relieved to see this! All too often I find myself working with an insect that was last referenced in an obscure piece of literature from over a century ago. The BHL is my go-to for those pieces and I am so grateful for all their work archiving these precious entomological treasures! #ILoveBHL 🐛🧪
An historic illustration of two butterflies and a hairy caterpillar. There are green leaves and white flowers in the background.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is turning 20! 🎉
We’re starting celebrations with a special anniversary blog series #BHLat20: Treasures from BHL, featuring remarkable works chosen by the people who know them best: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/03/cele... #ILoveBHL
BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine 2024. Penguin Random House.
Met The Flower Book this afternoon. Some illustrations from Biodiversity Heritage Library are so great! A useful database to do some birds-related research. @biodivlibrary.bsky.social
www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Illustration of Myosotis capitata in Vol 1 of The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H.M. discovery ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839-1843 :under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross by Dalton
Kew Herbarium specimen of Myosotis capitata will pencil illustration
I've been looking for an NZ botany species that combines specimens, illustrations, presence on Wiki, GBIF, @biodivlibrary.bsky.social, research expeditions, etc etc. Thanks to @rbgkew.bsky.social for digitising the perfect example to use in a Wiki Workshop. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myosoti... #Wiki