Celebrating Professor Anne Warner, an extraordinary woman whose pioneering work in cell biology and belief in opportunity and education continues to shape lives today.
https://www.mba.ac.uk/donate/leave-a-gift-in-your-will/
#InternationalWomensDay
Happy #WorldBookDay 📖
We have many fabulous books in our collection, but wanted to share a few we felt would be great reads for ocean advocates of all ages
Do you have a favourite book (or books!)? Let us know - we'd love to hear about them 😊
Calling all Ocean-Inspired Photographers!
We are inviting photographers from around the world to enter the Ocean Image Collection Photography Competition 2026.
Find out more and enter - https://www.mba.ac.uk/ocean-image-collection/
#OceanImageCollection
Full title: Malacostraca podophthalmata Britanniae, or, Descriptions of such British species of the Linnean genus Cancer as have their eyes elevated on footstalks 🦞
A colour illustration of the European lobster, showing the deep blue colouration of the shell. The illustration is large enough that the page is trifold to fit within the book
Today is #WorldWildlifeDay. We could find many images of wildlife in our collections @thembauk.bsky.social but this one of the European lobster caught our eye. We hope you like as much as we do
📖BL.42/L - Malacostraca podophthalmata Britanniae. W.E Leach, 1815-1875. Illustrations by James Sowerby
March is Women's History Month!
Women are present throughout our collections but their narratives can be harder to find.
Our online guide addresses this imbalance by highlighting archives and rare books relating to women, which can be accessed for research or enjoyment.
#WomensHistoryMonth #WHM
colour illustration of a polar bear. The polar bear is stood on a sandy looking shore, with boulders behind it, and is looking down into water.
Happy #InternationalPolarBearDay. To celebrate our bear buddies we've found this illustration from volume four of 'Oeuvres completes de Buffon (avec la nomenclature Lineene et la classification de Cuvier). Annotees par M. Flourens' 1853-1855
📖 B.35/B
This #WorldBookDay, join award-winning author Nathanael Lessore for a FREE virtual schools event with Waterstones!
He’ll introduce his teen title Against All Odds, reveal where he gets his ideas and inspiration from plus answer students’ questions live.
Sign up here - https://ow.ly/UZ9k50YlpYE
A Ross’s gull has turned up in a Cornish harbour. Sightings this far south are rare, making this a real treat for birders! If you’re lucky enough to spot it, please keep a respectful distance and upload your photos to iNaturalist - buff.ly/fADRIUo
Photo: Rex Leung
We were going to # HumpDay but so glad we did a check first 😬 our Library Assistant is shooketh
A colour illustration of life in a rock pool. A velvet swimming crab, with a brown body an red eyes has its claws up. There are two brightly coloured (one orange, one pink) anemones on the wall of the rock pool, and two common prawns are swimming around above.
Sharing this because it's Wednesday and why not. One of the many vibrant illustrations from L.R. Brightwell's 'Sea-shore life of Britain', 1947 📖BE.30/B
#rockpool #tidepool
two colour drawings of the chambered nautilus. the top drawing shows the outside of the shell, with irregular brown stripes, and the bottom drawing shows the inside of the shell, with the spiralled chambers
It's #MolluscMonday so we have for you some beautiful colour illustrations of the chambered nautilus, taken from Knorr's 'Les delices des yeux et de l'esprit, ou collection generale des differentes especes de coquillages que la mer renferme, communiquee au public' c.1760
📖BL.48/K
Exhausted - and in some cases dead - Atlantic puffins have been washing up around the UK recently after storms have left them weak and unable to feed.
If you find a puffin:
✍️Log your sighting on iNaturalist: buff.ly/sMJmnVF
🚑If it’s alive, contact a local veterinary practice who can advise you
two books on a shelf. The left one is titled statistics and data handling for biologists and the one on the right id the evolution of cetacean societies
New books into the library 📚 Ideal for anyone interested in statistics and cetaceans
📖Statistics and Data Handling for Biologists: BA.5/M
📖The Evolution of Cetacean Societies: BL.95/A
Our full catalogue is available to search at www.nmbl.org
black and white photographs of the test of the echinoderm Echinodiscus auritus. Dorsal view on the left and ventral view on the right
It's also #PancakeDay so please enjoy these photographs of the ~sea~ pancake, Echinodiscus auritus
📖BL.54/A: Revision of the Echini. Plate volume. Alexander Agassiz, 1872-1874
Tasty 🥞
a colour photograph of a brass banister inlay of a seahorse between two fronds of seaweed
Happy Lunar New Year!
This year is #YearOfTheHorse so we're putting our fishy spin on it of course 🌊🐴
Three colour illustrations of whales. The top drawing is a side on view of the blue whale, and the bottom two drawings are side on views of the fin whale
Today is #WorldWhaleDay 🐳
In celebration of our fin-tastic cetacean chums, please enjoy these whale-y lovely illustrations of blue and fin whales from volume three of Millais' 'The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland', 1906
📖 ref: BL.95/M
A colour photography of the title page of an early edition of 'On the Origin of Species'. The top right of the page is torn out and, underneath this, there is a handwritten note that says 'from the author 1860'
It's #DarwinDay #OTD in 1809 Charles Darwin was born. We have a number of books in our collection by or about Charles Darwin, but this early edition copy of 'On the Origin of Species' - which was gifted to an unknown recpient by Darwin - is a particulary special addition to our collection.
📖 BS.15/D
@aliceahorton.bsky.social on the women who inspired her
Discover more about the Women in Science at the MBA - www.mba.ac.uk/celebrating-...
#WomenInScience #WomenInConservation #InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience
A colour photograph of a display of fourteen books written by, or about, women i science. These are displayed alongside information sheets on former MBA researchers Molly Spooner, Marie Lebour and Mary Parke as well as Miriam Rothschild, who was briefly spent time at the MBA
#February11 is International Day of Women and Girls in Science 🔬 We are privileged to have a wide variety of books in our collection by, or about, women in science and marine biology. So to celebrate we've set up a display of a small selection of them in our Reading Room @thembauk.bsky.social
A black and white photograph of Sir Alister Hardy at sea. He has a pipe in his mouth, while he appears to be holding some unidentified survey equipment
#OTD in 1896 Sir Alister Hardy was born. Zoologist on the 1925-1927 RRS Discovery voyage to the Antarctic, Hardy designed the Continous Plankton Recorder (CPR), which is now the longest running marine ecological survey in the world buff.ly/72d4Lzt
📸 UM.74
A colour photograph of an invitation card to the celebration dinner for the opening of the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth. The invitation is addressed to W. Garstang
#OTD in 1868 Walter Garstang was born. During his time @thembauk.bsky.social Garstang focused on investigating North Sea fisheries. He was involved with the establishment of a fisheries laboratory at Lowestoft, which has since become @cefasgovuk.bsky.social
📸 MBA Archive ref PGA1.2
A colour photograph of a large, light wood desk with seven drawers. On the desk are three microscopes, some printed news articles and a selection of magazines. On the wall behind the desk is a quilted mural of the laboratory and Plymouth area
What do you do when you have an unused solid wood desk in the library? Turn it into display space of course! You can get an up close look at items from our object collection, read about news stories from the archive and catch up on the latest issue of The Marine Biologist from here
#reuse #repurpose
Rearranging the Universe | The Enduring Spell of Curiosity Cabinets is now on our YouTube channel. Join @giovannialoi.bsky.social as he explores how the desire to categorize, possess, and marvel continues to shape art practices today.
Unusual sighting of a Mediterranean sea hare species, found on a recent @therockpoolproject.bsky.social BioBlitz Battle
www.mba.ac.uk/young-rock-p...
Words Alive in Libraries is underway in the south west 📖
If events and author talks around the themes of nature, life writing and wellbeing are of interest to you, head to literatureworks.org.uk/projects/wor... to find out more and to book
A photograph of colour illustrations of a sea urchin. The top illustration shows the urchin without spines, and the bottom illustration is of an urchin with spines, and some of the tube feet are extended
It's #NationalHedgehogDay so, naturally, we've put our spin on it and are celebrating all the sea hedgehogs (aka sea urchins).
📷ref: BE.30/W - The Sea-Shore Shown to the Children, 1907
P.S - We fully support all terrestrial hedgehogs too 🦔
We love this vibrantly coloured mollusc. To keep with today's posts - we have found an illustration of Patella pellucida by our anonymous conchological author
📖BL.48/A - Conchology, by Anonymous, c.1816
A photograph of a book, open to a page of colour illlustrations of seashells from the genus Murex
A photograph of a book, open to a page of colour illustrations of marine gastropods
A photograph of nine colour illustrations of cowrie shells
A photograph of an introductory page of a book on seashells. The text reads - this work consists of coloured and plain drawings and outlines made from shells, and from engravings contained in the works of Martini and Chemnitz, Gualtierus, Donovan, Mus: Bonan, Kercher, Knorr, Rumphius, Encyclopaedia Methodica, Pennant, Turton, Lister, Montagu, Born. Systematically arranged
Because @exeterunispeccoll.bsky.social asked so nicely - here are a few of the illustrations of seashells from the eight volume conchology series by the unknown author with the lovely handwriting 🐚
📖ref BL.48A: Conchology, by Anonymous c.1816
Shelf of small books in the Syon Abbey Library. Most have parchment bindings and hand-made modern orange labels created by the community of Syon Abbey.
Shelves of books in the Chris Brooks Collection. The books in this photograph were written for children and young adults in the 19th and early 20th century, and many of them have colourful and illustrated bindings.
Shelves of books in the Hypatia Collection of books and journals by and about women. Many of the books in this photo have colourful or illustrated spines.
Several shelves of old and very large leather-bound books in the Dodderidge (Barnstaple) Parish Library. The books have raised bands or ridges along the spines, which were created during the binding process and show the structure of the cord-bound books.
Library Shelfie Day is always a great excuse to show off the variety of ages, colours, shapes and sizes on the shelves of our rare book collections!
📷 Syon Abbey Library, Chris Brooks Collection, Hypatia Collection and Dodderidge Parish Library
#LibraryShelfieDay #ShelfieDay #RareBooks
