Glasgow Museums and Glasgow’s natural history societies

This article looks at the relationship between Glasgow Museums – those museums owned by Glasgow City Council (formerly Glasgow Corporation) and now run on their behalf by Glasgow Life – and the various natural history societies that have existed within Glasgow over the last 165 years, and their many important contributions to the collections and staff of Glasgow Museums. This article demonstrates the enormous benefits to museums of working in collaboration with natural history societies and amateur naturalists.

It does not look at other relationships between the natural history societies and the Hunterian or other museums in Glasgow. Nor does it include the Geological Society of Glasgow (founded in 1858) or the (Royal) Philosophical Society of Glasgow (founded in 1802).