Our task
The Biohistoricum is a research archive on the history of biology. Since 2008, it has been part of the Museum Koenig Bonn with more than 50,000 works from the fields of natural history, zoology and botany. Recently, it has also included the in-house archive of the Museum Koenig Bonn as well as the library and archive of the Natural History Society of the Rhineland and Westphalia (NHV). The scientific bequests from German-speaking countries include offprints, specialised books, journals, correspondence and diaries of important biologists.
Valuable treasures
Making this valuable historical treasure available, researching it and making it accessible is an essential task for the scientists working here. The archive is also an important repository of knowledge for research at the LIB for the assessment of species communities and habitats of the past. Universities, museums, the media and private individuals from Germany and abroad use the Biohistoricum's archives for research purposes and exhibitions.
Contents of our collection
The external enquiries also concern transcriptions of manuscripts, the search for specific estates and collaborations in the field of art history. In addition to expertise on artists such as Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) and Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), correspondence from the 19th century, such as that of the biologist Fritz Müller (1822-1897), who emigrated to southern Brazil in 1852, or landscape and animal drawings by the African explorer Georg Schweinfurth (1836-1925) are particularly in demand.