A novel negative thermal expansion (NTE) material NdMnO3 was synthesized by solid-state method at 1523 K. The crystal structure, phase transition and negative expansion properties of NdMnO3 were investigated by variable temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and variable temperature Raman spectra. The experimental results show that the compound adopts the orderly O' phase crystal structure between room temperature and 1023 K, which transforms to the disordered O phase above 1023 K. NdMnO3 compound underwent a Jahn-Teller distortion from the orbitally ordered О' phase to the orbitally disordered O phase. The compound exhibits NTE properties in the orderly O' phase crystal structure. When the temperature is from 293 to 759 K, the ceramic NdMnO3 shows negative thermal expansion of -4.7×10-6 /K. As temperature increases, the ceramic NdMnO3 presents NTE property range from 759 to 1007 K. the average linear expansion coefficient is -18.88×10-6 /K. The physical mechanism of NTE is discussed and clarified through experiments.