The University Museum of Zoology is a museum of the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
and part of the research community of the Department of Zoology. The public is welcome and admission is free (2018).
The Museum of Zoology is in the David Attenborough Building (formerly known as the Arup Building) on the
New Museums Site
The New Museums Site is a major site of the University of Cambridge, located on Pembroke Street and Free School Lane, sandwiched between Corpus Christi College, Pembroke College and Lion Yard. Its postcode is CB2 3QH. The smaller and older of ...
, just north of
Downing Street
Downing Street is a street in Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Situated off Whitehall, it is long, and a few minutes' walk ...
in central
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
The building also provides a home for the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, a biodiversity project.
The museum houses an extensive collection of scientifically important zoological material. The collections were designated in 1998 by the
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) was until May 2012 a non-departmental public body and registered charity in England with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives. Its function ...
(now managed by the
Arts Council England
Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...
) as being of outstanding historical and international importance.
The museum reopened on 23 June 2018 after a major redevelopment
for which it had been awarded a grant of £1.8m by the
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
.
The redevelopment aimed to create a "green" building" and to create displays and new interpretation to engage people with the wonders of animal diversity; create new stores to care for the museum's internationally significant collections to the highest standards and expand the museum's learning programmes, reaching out to wider audiences and increasing online resources.
The museum is one of the eight museums of the
University of Cambridge Museums consortium.
History of the museum
Much of the museum's material derives from the great collecting expeditions of the 19th century, which provided the first documentation of the fauna in many parts of the world. The earliest exhibits come from the Harwood anatomical collection which was purchased in 1814. The museum added further collections including birds from
Swainson and animals from the
Cambridge Philosophical Society
The Cambridge Philosophical Society (CPS) is a scientific society at the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1819. The name derives from the medieval use of the word philosophy to denote any research undertaken outside the fields of la ...
, to which
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
himself had contributed.
Past superintendents of the museum include:
William Clark 1817–1866,
John Willis Clark
John Willis Clark (1833 – 1910), sometimes J. W. Clark, was an English academic and antiquarian.
Academic career
Clark was born into a Cambridge University academic family, and was a nephew of Prof. Robert Willis. Educated at Eton and Trinity ...
1866–1892,
Sidney Frederic Harmer
Sir Sidney Frederic Harmer, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, KBE, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (9 March 1862 – 22 October 1950) was a UK, British zoologist. He was President of the Linnean Society 1927–1931 and was awa ...
1892–1908,
Reginald Crundall Punnett
Reginald Crundall Punnett FRS (; 20 June 1875 – 3 January 1967) was a British geneticist who co-founded, with William Bateson, the ''Journal of Genetics'' in 1910. Punnett is probably best remembered today as the creator of the Punnett ...
1908–1909,
and
Leonard Doncaster
Leonard Doncaster (31 December 1877 – 28 May 1920) was an English geneticist and a lecturer on zoology at both Birmingham University and the University of Liverpool whose research work was largely based on insects.
Early life
Doncaster was ...
1909–1914.
The museum was moved into the current purpose-designed building during 1968–70. Five separate stores currently house the collection of specimens.
Collections
Many of the collections were assembled during the nineteenth century, which was a key period for the development of modern biology. Much of the material was accumulated between 1865 and 1915 through private collections and expeditions. Cambridge was a centre of major importance for the development of biology, and several of the individuals associated with the museum were central figures in the most active areas of scientific debate.
Collections and letters from various collectors are on display, including collections of:
*
F.M. Balfour
Francis (Frank) Maitland Balfour, known as F. M. Balfour, (10 November 1851 – 19 July 1882) was a British biologist. He lost his life while attempting the ascent of Mont Blanc. He was regarded by his colleagues as one of the greatest biologists ...
, Professor of Zoology
*
George Robert Crotch
George Robert Crotch (1842 – 16 June 1874) was a British entomologist and an authority on Coleoptera (beetles), particularly the ladybird beetles. He was the grandson of the English composer and organist William Crotch.
Biography
Born in Som ...
,
entomologist
Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
*
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
,
Naturalist
*Sir
Clive Forster-Cooper
Sir Clive Forster Cooper, FRS (3 April 1880 – 23 August 1947) was an English palaeontologist and Director of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology and Natural History Museum in London. He was the first to describe ''Paraceratherium'', al ...
, former director of the museum
*
John Henry Gurney Sr., banker and amateur ornithologist
*
James Hepburn, Ornithologist
*Reverend
Leonard Jenyns
Leonard Jenyns (25 May 1800 – 1 September 1893) was an English clergyman, author and naturalist. He was forced to take on the name Leonard Blomefield to receive an inheritance. He is chiefly remembered for his detailed phenology observations ...
, originally chosen as the naturalist for the voyage of
HMS Beagle
HMS ''Beagle'' was a 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, one of more than 100 ships of this class. The vessel, constructed at a cost of £7,803 (roughly equivalent to £ in 2018), was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on t ...
*
Robert MacAndrew, amateur naturalist and shell-collector
*
Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous publications were a four-volume ''Dictionar ...
, zoologist and ornithologist.
*
Hugh Strickland
Hugh Edwin Strickland (2 March 1811 – 14 September 1853) was an English geologist, ornithologist, naturalist and systematist. Through the British Association, he proposed a series of rules for the nomenclature of organisms in zoology, known ...
, ornithologist
*
William Swainson,
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
*
Alfred Russel Wallace, co-originator of the theory of
natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...
*
Henry Woodward, geologist
Before the redevelopment a 21.3 m (70 ft)
finback whale
The fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), also known as finback whale or common rorqual and formerly known as herring whale or razorback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-longest species of ce ...
skeleton, colloquially known as Bobby, was displayed at the entrance of the museum; it was dismantled and stored during the redevelopment. The new interior entrance hall now contains this skeleton which was extensively cleaned before being reassembled. Skeletons and preserved skins of many extinct animals are housed in the museum. Most of the fish specimens are stored in spirit, some of them having been collected by Darwin himself on the
voyage of HMS Beagle from 1831 - 1836. The bird collection consists of skins, eggs and skeletal material. There are skeletal remains from extinct birds such as the
dodo
The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...
from
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
and the
Rodrigues solitaire
The Rodrigues solitaire (''Pezophaps solitaria'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Rodrigues, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Genetically within the family of pigeons and doves, it was most closely relate ...
from
Rodrigues in the collection. The insect collection contains specimens collected by Darwin from around
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. Collections of molluscs, corals and other sea-dwellers offer insight into the biological diversity of the oceans.
Great ape skeletons in the Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge.jpg, Skeletons of great apes
See also
*
Natural history museums
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...
References
External links
Museum website
{{Authority control
Zoology, Museum of
Museums in Cambridge
Natural history museums in England