The Palaeobotany Department of the Swedish Museum of Natural History was established in the late 1800s and has supported research on a diverse range of plants of all ages. The Department hosts, manages, and regularly contributes additional material to, one of the largest fossil plant collections in Europe. The fossil collections have provided the basis for several thousand scientific publications by staff and visiting scientists over the course of its history. In addition to the work of its staff, the department has hosted many hundreds of visiting scientists over the past 140 years. It will continue to provide an invaluable resource for research on the evolution of plant and fungal life on Earth for long into the future. Now under the management of just its sixth administrative Head since 1884, the department is forging new pathways in palaeobotanical research utilizing cutting-edge technologies to provide advances in plant systematics, phylogeny, biogeography, biostratigraphy, palaeoenvironmental analysis, plant-animal interactions, and fossil fungal/microbial studies. The department is aware of multiple risks facing the survival of palaeontological collections in the 21st century and has put in place strategies to maintain access to and relevancy of the collections for future generations.