Library Open Day

Back to What’s On
Free, drop in
Browse our library collections during the open day every month, chat to the librarian and see some of the library treasures.

Ask questions about the library catalogues and find books about topics related to our collections.

We have a selection of children’s books for children and families to enjoy, as well as some highlights from the library on display.

The Horniman Library collection contains books from 16th century through to the current day, from academic texts to accounts by early explorers and illustrated monographs. The collection covers a wide spectrum of subject areas covering the remit of the museum; natural history, anthropology and musical instruments.

The collection, which originated with Frederick Horniman’s own book collection, has been added to by subsequent directors, curators and librarians and now amounts to some 30,000 volumes. Find out more about the Library collections or read blog posts from our Librarians.

Illustrations of moth, butterflies, caterpillars, and pupae
A book from the Library - an example of early entomology by Maria Sibylla Merian
An illustration of the skeleton of a horse.
An illustrated book from the Library
An old book showing an illustration of Japan
Beautifully illustrated Japanese fairy tales
A close up at an angle close to the paper, of a page in a book. The page says ferns and mosses in a decorative script, there are decorations around it in gold, green and red lines, with plants and leaves.
One of the books in our collection, R Dornan