Is it reasonable to apply evolutionary principles to museums? This article is based on a talk I gave at the ICOM NatHist meeting in Croatia in October 2014, where I speculated on the future of natural history museums, and argued that if such museums do not take a leaf out of the book of evolution and adapt, they will have no future. Natural history museums of the European 18th and 19thC tradition are very much the product of the age of enlightenment. Enthusiastic amateurs a