ZSL at 200: Science, Society, and the Natural World

Blog series UK Web Archive

Introduction

This year’s Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) & Zoological Society of London (ZSL) Summer Meeting 2026, The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) at 200: Science, Society, and the Natural World took place at the Huxley Lecture Theatre, ZSL in London from 1–3 July, 2026.

There was a packed programme (PDF, 884KB) with a mix of presentations, posters and site visits which explored the history of ZSL as a hub for zoological research over the last 200 years as well as showcasing collection highlights from a number of institutions in London. British Library colleagues attended the conference as presenters as well as a host for a site visit. In this blog post the attendees report highlights of their conference experience.

Reflections

Helena Byrne, Curator of Web Archives

This was my first time attending a Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) conference. Along with my colleague Nora Ramsey (see her reflection below) we presented a poster entitled The role of web archives in preserving the digital legacy of zoology in the UK which gave an overview of the UK Web Archive and the collection Zoology in the UK. Cheryl Tipp, Wildlife & Environmental Sounds Curator at the British Library is leading on the development of this collection. As with all UK Web Archive collections, anyone with expertise or a general interest can contribute to them by emailing a nomination to web-archivist@bl.uk.

It is hoped that this poster can enable further discussion on how web archives can be utilised in zoological research. These discussions will then help to develop best practice for enabling reuse of web archives within the research community. The SHNH community was very welcoming to first time attendees. The presentations I saw on day one of the conference gave a thorough overview to the early years of Zoological societies in the UK as well as the development of the early years of the Zoological Society of London and the formation of the zoo in Regents Park.

Beth Gaskell, Lead Curator News & Moving Image

This was my first Society for the History of Natural History event, and I was made to feel very welcome. I presented a paper on a panel on the first day of the meeting, discussing the founding of the two journals of the Zoological Society in the 1830s, the Proceedings and the Transactions. This came from some wider research I have been doing into the founding of journals as various scientific Learned Societies, focusing on ideas of institutional identity, professionalisation and dispersed communities. There were several other papers given at the meeting that dealt with ZSL’s relationship with the media, media coverage of London Zoo, and popular science and the media more generally. It is always interesting to hear discussions that touch on your collection area, but coming from different contexts and presenting different points of view. It was also great to be involved in the viewing session showcasing newspaper coverage of the Zoological Society from their founding in 1826 through to the present day.

Cheryl Tipp, Wildlife & Environmental Sounds Curator

The summer meeting of the Society for the History of Natural History has become a firm favourite of mine, with this being my third year in attendance. With three days dedicated to exploring the 200 year history of the Zoological Society of London, it came as little surprise that several papers referenced the work of Julian Huxley, Secretary of ZSL between 1935-1942. Though not always a popular figure within the society, Huxley’s interest in new technologies and disseminating scientific information to the public saw him collaborate on several projects linked to London Zoo. This included Animal Language, the first sound book on acoustic communication in animals. Huxley worked with the prominent wildlife sound recordist Ludwig Koch on the book, with Koch recording animals found at both London and Whipsnade Zoo. These recordings were presented on two 78 rpm shellac discs which were included within the publication. Animal Language was published in 1938 and was just one of the items on display at a zoo-themed viewing session for meeting delegates. This was the perfect opportunity to continue conversations around themes discussed during the meeting and was a fruitful experience for both delegates and BL curatorial staff.

Cam Sharp Jones, Visual Arts Curator

As a member of the Society for the History of Natural History for a number of years, the annual summer conference is always a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with colleagues from across the world and learn more about the wide range of research taking place into the history of natural history. This year marked the 90th anniversary of the Society’s founding as well as the 200th anniversary of the formation of the Zoological Society of London — the focus of the numerous papers that were presented across the three days. In addition to presentations and posters, the Society also organised several viewing sessions in different London based institutions including the British Library, which was hosted in the Visual Art’s Print Room. The display brought together material from the Newspaper collection, Wildlife Sounds collection and the Visual Arts collections - with paintings, photographs, newspapers, printed books, vinyl and other sound collection items all on display.

Nora Ramsey, Assistant Web Archivist

If you had asked me years ago whether I'd ever attend a Zoology conference, I would have said it was unlikely. However, as a web archivist tasked with helping preserve the UK's digital heritage I cover all kinds of subjects. The conference marked 200 years of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and featured talks on the history and development of the society and of zoological research itself. Isabelle Charmantier's talk, ‘The Tumultuous Years of the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society of London’, drew on early meeting minutes documenting the society's evolution, and Beth Gaskill's presentation on the founding of the Society's two journals left me thinking about what the next 200 years of research might look like. At the 400th anniversary of the society, what notes and correspondence would researchers be most eager to explore?

This is exactly why the UK Web Archive is creating a thematic Zoology collection to capture relevant online content that can serve as both a primary and secondary source, as well as a preservation tool. Society meeting minutes are increasingly published online, journals are making articles available as e-resources, and researchers are sharing their views and opinions on personal websites and blogs. All of this content risks being lost without active preservation.

The Pew Research Center's study, ‘When Online Content Disappears’, found that roughly a quarter of all webpages that existed between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible today. Nearly 38% of webpages from 2013 have since vanished. Academic and society websites are at even greater risk of being lost before they can be preserved. That's why thematic collections matter: while the UK Web Archive does run annual domain crawls, a huge amount of UK-published content doesn't sit on a .uk, .scot, or .cymru domain. It's efforts like this thematic collection that help fill those gaps and preserve the UK's digital heritage.

Call for action

Do you have a favourite website, blog or event listing page that discusses zoology and the natural world? You can contribute to the Zoology in the UK collection by emailing a nomination to web-archivist@bl.uk.