This includes botany, zoology and geology as well as natural history collections, exploration, art and bibliography.
The Society's first President was Charles Davies Sherborn (1861–1942), who compiled the Index Animalium single-handedly over 43 years (1758–1850).
This 11 volume, 9,000 page work, that catalogued 444,000 names of every living and extinct animal discovered between 1758 and 1850 is considered to be the bibliographic foundation for zoological nomenclature.
This includes botany, geology, palaeontology and zoology, the lives of naturalists, their publications, correspondence and collections, and the institutions and societies that have promoted the study and documentation of the natural world.
Bibliographical papers concerned with the study of rare books, manuscripts and illustrative material, and analytical and enumerative bibliographies are also published.