Natural History Articles

Natural History - Nov 2025

Collection Insight: Radiocarbon dating a Woolly Rhino Tooth

Radiocarbon dating has helped piece together human history, showing when early people farmed, built homes or migrated. It’s not perfect – items older than about 50,000 years can’t be dated accurately because there’s too little carbon-14 left in them – but it remains one of our most important tools for understanding the past and the timeline of the Earth’s story and the people who lived here long before written records began. Here's what it's helped us learn about a woolly rhino tooth from the natural history collection.

Press Release - Jun 2025

Looking Back: A mammoth moment

It was a ‘huge’ moment for The Box back in February 2020 as our fully assembled woolly mammoth was revealed for the first time.

Natural History - Apr 2023

Earth Day 2023: The Butterfly Effect

On Earth Day, when the world comes together to take action to invest in our planet, we can take inspiration from the ultimate symbol of the climate emergency; the butterfly. With half of all British butterfly species on the red list (at risk of extinction), their eco systems are hypersensitive to climate change, reminding us of the fragile beauty of the natural world and what we stand to lose.

Natural History - Oct 2020

Displaying insects & biodiversity

We have over 100,000 insects in our collections at The Box, and we wanted to reflect this in the new natural history gallery, Mammoth.

Natural History - Apr 2020

Earth Day 2020: Garden Explorers

Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day - an international celebration of life on earth that aims to highlight the importance of protecting our environment. It’s marked in over 190 countries across the world.