Today is #WorldWhaleAndDolphinDay 🐳 We have a number of books in our collection about these marvellous marine mammals and you can find a selection of them currently on display in our Reading Room @thembauk.bsky.social  You can search our collection at https://www.nmbl.org/

#OTD in 1872 Edward Adrian Wilson was born. A doctor, naturalist and artist, Wilson was on board the Discovery as part of the First National Antarctic Expedition 1901-04. We have an original watercolour (date unknown) of Hut Point, McMurdo Sound in our archive @thembauk.bsky.social  📸 PWS1

It's also #WorldOrcaDay Despite having a cosmopolitan range around the globe, there is only one resident group of orca in the UK  In our Reading Room we have a copy of Dr Natalie Sanders' 'The Last Sunset in the West. Britain's Vanishing West Coast Orcas' published in 2024 (BL.95/S)

Time to celebrate our cartilaginous chums as today is #SharkAwarenessDay We've chosen this somewhat grumpy-looking but magnificent illustration of the porbeagle shark 📖BL.65/D: The Natural History of British Fishes by E. Donovan 1806  #SharkAndRayAwarenessDay

The grand opening of @thembauk.bsky.social's Citadel Hill laboratory was held in June 1888, but you can see there was still quite a way to go from this photograph taken in 1887  #EYAArchitecture 📸UF25

#OTD in 1914 Mary Florence 'Molly' Mare was born. After studying botany in Cambridge, she completed her PhD @thembauk.bsky.social, which is where she met her husband Malcolm Spooner. Dr Spooner coined the term meiobenthos and was also integral in researching the Torrey Canyon oil spill of 1967

Time for our annual celebration of our 'hairy' worm friends as today is #InternationalPolychaeteDay We stan Elsie Sexton's drawings of Plymouth polychaetes so much that we had to share some more again this year 🪱

Time to celebrate the angel sharks as today is #InternationalAngelSharkDay and sharks are jawsome This illustration is from volume 1 of Donovan's 'The Natural History of British Fishes' published in 1808 📸 BL.65/D

We found an illustration of this cute cephalopod in Forbes' 'A history of British Mollusca and their shells' 1853 Described in volume 4, the plate illustration can be found in volume 1 📷BL.48/F

When we say we have one of the best views in #Plymouth #BritishSummerTime

It's #InternationalArchivesDay so to celebrate we've picked out some #EYAColourful illustrations from our collection 📷 PST23 - TA Stephenson, PYA1 - William Yarrell, PSX1-2 Elsie Sexton, PRN1 - Sir John Richardson

Happy #WorldOceanDay 🐳🦈 World Ocean Day celebrates the research and stories that deepen our connection to the sea. From whales and shells to historic voyages and ocean ecosystems, our collection explores the stories shaping ocean research Search our collection at https://www.nmbl.org/

#OTD in 1784 William Yarrell was born. Perhaps best known for his two volume 'A History of British Fishes'' published in 1836, we have original illustrations by Yarrell, believed to have been created in preparation for this work in our archive @thembauk.bsky.social 📷PYA1

#OTD in 1907 Rachel Carson was born We are priveleged to have a number of her publications in our collection but we're particularly drawn to of an edition of 'The Sea Around Us' recently donated to the library 📷BE.1/C Frank Allen Library

it's #WorldOtterDay so we’ve picked two titles from our collection celebrating these otter-ly amazing mammals BL.95/C: The Natural History of Otters, Chanin, P. 1985  BL.95/V The Community Ecology of Sea Otters, VanBlaricom, G.R. and Estes, J.A. 1988

It's time to shell-ebrate our turtle-y awesome reptile friends as today is #WorldTurtleDay 🐢 Here are a shell-ection of books from our collection

It's #WorldBeeDay 📷BL.46/S: 'The humble-bee. Its life history and how to domesticate it with descriptions of all the British species of Bombus and Psithyrus' by F.W.L. Sladen, 1912. Bee-utiful🐝

It's #WorldTunaDay and to celebrate these wonderful oceanic wanderers, we've delved into the rare books collectio to find these illustrations from Cuvier's Le Règne Animal  📸 BL.65/C Top - Thunnus alalunga or albacore, bottom - Katsuwonus pelamis or skipjack tuna

#OTD in 1868 Elsie Sexton was born. Elsie was born Alice Wilkins Tring in 1868. Elsie studied at the Truro School of Art before moving to Plymouth. Initially illustrating for the MBA Director's scientific publications, she began publishing her own research in 1908. 📸Epigamia alexandri

Happy #WorldPenguinDay everyone! To celebrate these fabulous marine birds here are some beautiful colour illustrations from volume 2 of the Challenger Expedition reports. The penguin species are: Image 1: Southern Rockhopper Image 2: Magellanic 📖 S.I:Gb.10

It's #WorldBookAndCopyrightDay and #WorldBookNight 📚 We've recently added these books to our collection, we just need to decide which one to read first🤔

It's #EarthDay2026 🌍 You can find out more about the work @thembauk.bsky.social is doing to increase our understand our ocean habitats and ecology at www.mba.ac.uk/newsroom/

of course! how could we forget the manatee 🤦‍♀️ Thank you @annroberts.bsky.social Illustration from 'An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct' by W.H. Flower & R. Lydekker, 1891 📖BL.95/F

Well this is auks - we've just found out it's #WorldPuffinDay Please enjoy this charming illustration of Atlantic puffins out and about on some clifftop nests. 📖BL.90/K: The British Bird Book. An account of all the birds, nests and eggs found in the British Isles. Vol 3. F.B Kirkman 1912

For this month's @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social theme of #EYACrime we have found this diary entry written by Walter Garstang in 1888, noting his distress in hearing 'newsboys filling the streets with cries of "another murder in Whitechapel" ' 📷PGA1.2

Stunning 😍 and we’ve recently added book about nudibranchs to our collection 😎 📖 BL.48/P

It's #NationalUnicornDay 🦄 Here's an illustration (bottom) from Cuvier's 'De l'histoire naturelle des cetaces' (1836) of the 'unicorn of the sea' - the narwhal! Both volumes of this work (text & atlas) can be found in the rare books room in the library @thembauk.bsky.social 📖BL.95/C

It's time to celebrate our fuzzy semi-aquatic habitat engineers as today is #InternationalBeaverDay 🦫 This illustration is from volume two of Rondelet's history of aquatic animals, 1554. 📷BL.65/R

Happy Birthday to us! We look pretty good for being 142 years young 🥳 📷MBA Minute Books

It's #InternationalDayOfTheSeal and #WorldWaterDay so please enjoy this illustration of grey seals by the water 🦭 🌊 📖 BL.95/M volume 1 of 'The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland' by J.G Millais, 1904