Season of the Natural World
Once a country synonymous with its close relationship to the environment, a recent study has revealed that British people’s connection to nature has declined by 60% over the last 200 years. This cultural shift underscores the relevance of the Bodleian Libraries’ Season of the Natural World - a slate of exhibitions inspired by the world around us: Pets & their People, Wonder of Birds and Plain Things Wonders. These exhibitions celebrate the enduring beauty of the natural world and explore the profound, yet fragile, bond between humans and their environment.
Pets & their People
11 March 2026 – 27 September 2026
ST Lee Gallery, Weston Library, Oxford
Pets & their People explores the complex history and psychology behind our bond with animals. From never-before-seen cat drawings by author Patricia Highsmith to previously unexhibited photography of pet cemeteries by Daniel Meadows, the exhibition uses rare artefacts to question why we domesticate ‘wild things’ and what our devotion to pets reveals about human nature and the evolutionary need for connection.
Wonder of Birds
2 May 2026 - Winter 2026
Treasury, Weston Library, Oxford
Organised around the seven wonders of birds - nest, egg, beak, song, feather, flight, migration - this exhibition looks at birds through the dual lens of awe and loss. In collaboration with award-winning nature writer Robert MacFarlane and illustrator Jackie Morris, the exhibition will feature an original soundscape and archival material from one of the first influential female wildlife photographers. Drawing on biological research taking place at Oxford, the exhibition encourages visitors to engage with nature as an antidote to modern life.
Plain Things Wonders*
Winter 2026 - 25 April 2027
S.T. Lee Gallery, Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford
*Title subject to change
Plain Things Wonders tells the story of how attention to ordinary things transforms understanding of the natural world. Marking 400 years since the publication of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum, it unfolds the history of citizen science, lay participation in natural observation, and how projects like Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1665) and Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selbourne (1789) discover wonder in plain things. Partnering with organisations across Oxford and connecting the science of natural history with modern ecological challenges, this exhibition asks visitors to embrace their own opportunities to notice the plain things of the natural world in their everyday life.
For further information please contact Flint Culture via bodleian.libraries@flint-culture.com
Notes to Editors
Bodleian Libraries Press Office
Telephone: 07718 118141
Email: communications@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
The Press Office is open Monday – Friday from 9am – 5pm. For out-of-hours queries, please leave a message and email communications@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Related publications from Bodleian Library Publishing
Pets and their People by Charles Foster (6 November 2025)
For further information and review copies, please contact Emma O'Bryen, Publicity, emma@obryen.co.uk, 07505 659641
About the Bodleian Libraries
The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford is the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. It includes the principal University library – the Bodleian Library – which has been a legal deposit library for 400 years; as well as 23 libraries across Oxford including major research libraries and faculty, department, and institute libraries. Together, the Libraries hold more than 14 million printed items, over 80,000 e-journals and outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri,
maps, music, art, and printed ephemera. Members of the public can explore the collections via the Bodleian’s online image portal at digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk or by visiting the exhibition galleries in the Bodleian’s Weston Library. For more information, visit www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
About Bodleian Library Publishing
Bodleian Library Publishing helps to bring some of the riches of Oxford’s libraries to readers around the world through a range of beautiful and authoritative books. We publish approximately twenty-five new books a year on a wide range of subjects, including titles related to our exhibitions, illustrated and non-illustrated books, facsimiles, children’s books and stationery. We have a current backlist of over 250
titles. All of our profits are returned to the Bodleian and help support the Library’s work in curating, conserving and expanding its rich archives, helping to maintain the Bodleian’s position as one of the pre-eminent libraries in the world.
