The Friends of Charles Darwin

Over the next few months more than 28m dried and pinned specimens, including some that are more than 300 years old, will move out of their dark storerooms in the Natural History Museum to make way for a £66m building programme. Hans Sloane, the man who gave his name to Sloane Square and invented milk chocolate in the 18th century, collected many of the exquisitely fragile specimens of enormous economic and historic importance. Other collectors include Joseph Banks, who sailed with Captain Cook; Charles Darwin, who circumnavigated the world aboard HMS Beagle; and thousands of 20th-century enthusiasts and experts.