Several million objects are kept in the collections of the Natural History Museum Karlsruhe. They document the diversity of life on earth – and how it changes over time.

Margravine Karoline Luise of Baden (1723–1783) laid the cornerstone of these collections with her own “cabinet of natural history” that she turned into a significant compilation of scientific objects between 1763 and 1783. Following her death, Carl Christian Gmelin (1762–1837) became the cabinet’s first director. Gmelin and his successors focused on properly preserving and expanding the collections. Since the early 20^th century, the scientific collections have been stored separately from the items on display. Kept apart from the hustle and bustle of the exhibitions, scientific specimens are more effectively protected and are available for scientific research.

The exhibition “Collecting” highlights 32 curated objects from different departments – botany, mycology, zoology, entomology, palaeontology and geology – and points out unexpected links between objects from apparently unrelated collections.