Annual meetings of the Society are hosted by member institutions. The first SPNHC meeting took place at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in 1986. Since then the Society has met in venues across the North America and Europe.
Contact Information
Contact the conference chair
Download Conference Guidelines (PDF)
Past Meetings
SPNHC Organizational Meeting
Date: November 6, 1985
Location: Buffalo Museum of Science
Buffalo, NY, USA
Chair: Daniel J. Faber
Annual Meetings: 1986-1987-1988-1989-1990-1991-1992-1993-1994-1995-1996-1997-1998-1999-
2000-2001-2002-2003-2004-2005-2006-2007-2008-2009-2010-2011-2012-
First Annual Meeting
Date: June 9 - June 10, 1986
Location: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC USA
Organizer: Fredrick J. Collier
Second Annual Meeting
Date: May 31 - June 3, 1987
Location: Redpath Museum, McGill University
Montreal, QC Canada
Organizer: Ingrid Birker
Third Annual Meeting
Date: May 30 - June 3, 1988
Location: Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Pittsburgh, PA USA
Organizer: Duane Schlitter, Stephen Williams
Workshop: Health Hazards Associated with Natural History Museums
Fourth Annual Meeting: Collections: Our Treasured Heritage
Date: July 23 - July 28, 1989
Location: Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller, AB Canada
and the University of Calgary, Calgary AB. Canada.
Co-Chairs: Emlyn Koster, Anthony Russell
Assistant Co-Chairs: Jane Danis and Herbert Rosenberg
Workshop: Storage Design and Materials for Natural History
Fifth Annual Meeting
Date: May 7 - May 13, 1990
Location: Field Museum of Natural History
Chicago, IL USA
Organizer: David Willard and others
Workshop: Exhibiting Natural History Materials
Sixth Annual Meeting
Date: May 6 - May 11, 1991
Location: Canadian Museum of Nature
Ottawa, ON Canada
Local Committee Chair: Gerald R. Fitzgerald
Program Committee Chair: Robert Waller
Workshop: Practical Approaches to Preventative Conservation
Seventh Annual Meeting
Date: June 2- June 6, 1992
Location: Nebraska State Museum, University of Nebraska
Lincoln, NE USA
Organizer: Charles Messenger and Greg Brown
Workshop: Pest Management
Eighth Annual Meeting
Date: June 8- June 13, 1993
Location: Royal British Columbia Museum
Victoria, BC Canada
Organizer: Grant Hughes
Workshop: Archival Concerns of Natural History Museums
Ninth Annual Meeting, jointly with Association of Systematics Collections
Date: May 11 - May 15, 1994
Location: Missouri Botanical Garden
St. Louis, MO USA
Organizer: Ann Pinzl Jim Solomon (MOBOT) and Elaine Hoagland (ASC)
Workshop: Risk Assessment
Tenth Annual Meeting: "The Record of Nature through Countless Ages"
Date: June 2 - 6, 1995
Location: Royal Ontario Museum
Toronto, ON, Canada
Chair: Janet Waddington:
Workshop: Managing the Modern Herbarium
11th Annual Meeting
Date: June 11- June 15, 1996
Location: Academy of Natural Sciences
Philadelphia, PA USA
Organizer: Elana Benamy
12th Annual Meeting
Date: July 8 - July 14, 1997
Location: Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI USA
Organizer: Steven Krauth
13th Annual Meeting
Collections on the Move: Strategies For The New Millennium
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Date: May 25 - May 30, 1998
Location: University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB Canada
Coordinator: Lisa Barty
Co-Chairs: Frannie Blondheim, Leslie Latta-Guthrie
Workshop: Moving Collections
Special Interest Group Reports: Anthropology, Botany, Conservation, Geology, Paleontology, Zoology
14th Annual Meeting
Theme: Research and Collections
Hosts: Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, Smithsonian Institution and SPNHC
Date: June 28 - July 3, 1999
Location: Washington, DC, USA
Coordinators: David von Endt, Elizabeth Merritt
15th Annual Meeting
Theme: Maritime Natural History
Date: July 10 - 14, 2000
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Sponsors: Geological Survey of Canada and the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History
Coordinators: Iris Hardy and Alex Wilson
Workshop: Permits
16th Annual Meeting
Location: San Francisco, California USA
Date: June 21 - 26, 2001
Host: California Academy of Sciences
Chair: Jean Demouth
Workshop: Living Collections and Identifying Risks to Collections.
17th Annual Meeting
Theme: Hazardous collections and mitigations
Date: May 8-13, 2002
Location: Redpath Museum, Montreal, PQ Canada
Co-hosts: Canadian Museum of Nature and the Redpath Museum, McGill University
Chairs: Jean-Marc Gagnon, Ingrid Birker
Workshop: Emergency Responses and Mitigation
18th Annual Meeting
Theme: Modern Museums - Balancing Tradition and Technology
Date: Conference: June 15-19, 2003
Workshop: June 20-21, 2003
Hosted by Museum of Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas, USA
Chair: Richard Monk
19th Annual Meeting
Date: Conference: May 11 - 16, 2004
Hosted by: American Museum of Natural History New York, New York USA
Chair: Chris Norris
Workshop: Emergency Preparedness, Response & Salvage
20th Annual Meeting
Date: Conference: June 12 - 19, 2005
Website: REALISING STANDARDS
Hosted by: The Natural History Museum, London, UK
21st Annual Meeting
SPNHC-NSCA joint meeting
Date: Conference: May 23-27, 2006
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Co-hosted by: The University of New Mexico Museum of Southwestern Biology and the U.S. Geological Arid Lands Field Station
Meeting was held at the Sheraton Old Town Hotel
Theme: The Road to Productive Partnerships
Organizers: Cindy Ramotnik (SPNHC host) and Cheryl Parmenter (NSCA host)
22nd Annual Meeting
Date: Conference: May 21-26, 2007
Theme: Building for the 21st Century
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
Host: Science Museum of Minnesota
Co-Chairs: Gretchen Anderson and Jack Hoff
23rd Annual Meeting
Date: Conference: May 13 - May 17, 2008
Theme: Collection Stewardship: Challenges in a Changing World
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Host: Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
Co-Chairs: Marcy Revelez and Janet Braun
24th Annual Meeting
Date: Conference: May 31- June 5, 2009
Theme: Bridging Continents - New Initiatives and Perspectives in Natural History Collections
Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
Host: National Natural History Museum Naturalis and Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC)
Co-Chairs: Dr. R.W.R.J. Dekker and Andries van Dam
25th Annual Meeting
Date: Conference: May 31- June 5, 2010. SPNHC 25th Anniversary celebration
Theme: Biodiversity 1020 and beyond, Science and Collections.
Joint Conference SPNHC & CBA-ABC
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Host: Canadian Museum of Nature
Co-Chairs: Jean-Marc Gagnon and Judith Price
26th Annual Meeting
Date: Conference: May 21- 28, 2011
Theme: Sustainable Museums - Sustainable Collections
Joint Conference SPNHC & NSCA
Location: San Francisco, California
Host: California Academy of Sciences
Chair: Debra Trock
27th Annual Meeting
Date: Conference: June 11-16, 2012
Theme: Emerging Technology and Innovation in Natural History Collections Management
Location: Yale University, Newhaven, Connecticut
Host: Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
Chair: Tim White
Related Events
Workshop on Care and Maintenance of Natural History Collections
Date: May 27- May 28, 1981
Location: National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa ON Canada
Organizer: Daniel J. Faber, Gerald R. Fitzgerald
Publication: Faber, Daniel J., Editor, (1983) Proceedings of 1981 Workshop on Care and Maintenance of Natural History Collections, Syllogeus, No. 44, 196pp., ISSN 0704-576X, National Museums of Canada, Ottawa, ON Canada.
Second Workshop on Care and Maintenance of Natural History Collections
Date: May 22 - May 23, 1985
Location: Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto ON Canada
Organizer: Janet Waddington, David M. Rudkin
Publication: Waddington, Janet and David M. Rudkin, Editors, (1986) Proceedings of the 1985 Workshop on Care and Maintenance of Natural History Collections, Life Sciences Miscellaneous Publications, 121pp., ISSN 0082-5093, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON Canada.
International Symposium and First World Congress for the Preservation and Conservation of Natural History Collections
Date: May 10 - May 15, 1992
Location: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
Madrid, Spain
Organizing Committee: German Alonso (Spain), Juilo Gisbert (Spain)
Natural History Collections-- A Resource for the Future
Second World Conference on the Preservation and Conservation of Natural History Collections
Date: August 20 - August 24, 1996
Location: University of Cambridge, England
Organizing Committee: Chris Collins (England)