The D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum is a museum of

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

in Scotland. The museum is named after the Scottish biologist and mathematician

D'Arcy Thompson Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson CB FRS FRSE (2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948) was a Scottish biologist, mathematician and classics scholar. He was a pioneer of mathematical and theoretical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Strait ...

(1860–1948), who founded it in the 1880s. Thompson began acquiring specimens for a museum immediately on taking up the post of Professor of Biology at what was then University College, Dundee in 1885. An extension to his department in 1893 allowed the creation of a purpose-built museum, which grew to become one of the largest museums of its kind in Britain at the time. The original museum building was demolished along with its neighbours in 1956–57 to make way for the Tower Building, and much of Thompson's original collection was dispersed. The remaining material was kept in storage for many years before new museum displays were created in the Biological Sciences Institute in the 1980s. This building was itself later demolished, and in 2007 a new museum was created in the Carnelley Building, formally named the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum after its founder. The museum has a collection of birds, fish, insects, mammals, and reptiles from around the world, together with many of D'Arcy Thompson's original models and teaching aids, including

Glass Sea Creatures The glass sea creatures (alternately called the Blaschka sea creatures, glass marine invertebrates, Blaschka invertebrate models, and Blaschka glass invertebrates) are works of glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. The artistic predecessors ...

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka Leopold Blaschka (27 May 1822 – 3 July 1895) and his son Rudolf Blaschka (17 June 1857 – 1 May 1939) were glass artists from Dresden, Germany. They were known for their production of biological and botanical models, including glass sea crea ...

and model and fluid preparations by Vaclav Fric. Many of the specimens and models relate to Thompson's interest in mathematical biology, which led to his celebrated book

On Growth and Form ''On Growth and Form'' is a book by the Scottish mathematical biology, mathematical biologist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860–1948). The book is long – 793 pages in the first edition of 1917, 1116 pages in the second edition of 1942. The ...

. The museum has 27 specimens from the voyage of of 1872–1876 and material from several other notable expeditions including the Dundee Antarctic Expedition of 1892–3, the Ingolf Expedition of 1895–6, the

Nimrod Expedition The ''Nimrod'' Expedition of 1907–1909, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton and his second time to the Continent. Its main target, among a range of ...

of 1907-9 and the

Discovery Investigations The Discovery Investigations were a series of scientific cruises and shore-based investigations into the biology of whales in the Southern Ocean. They were funded by the British Colonial Office and organised by the Discovery Committee in London, ...

of the 1930s. There are also specimens of various extinct species including

Huia The huia ( ; ; ''Heteralocha acutirostris'') is an extinct species of New Zealand wattlebird, endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. The last confirmed sighting of a huia was in 1907, although there was another credible sighting in 1924 ...

and

Thylacine The thylacine (; binomial name ''Thylacinus cynocephalus''), also commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, was a carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmani ...

. The museum also has an art collection inspired by the work of D'Arcy Thompson including his 1917 book ''

'', part of which was funded by the UK

Art Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

. It includes works by

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

Victor Pasmore Edwin John Victor Pasmore, Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, CH, CBE (3 December 190823 January 1998) was a British artist. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Pasmore was bo ...

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Order of the British Empire, CBE (8 June 1912 – 26 January 2004) was one of the foremost British Abstract art, abstract artists, a member of the influential Penwith Society of Arts. Early life Wilhelmina Barns-Grah ...

, William Turnbull and

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

, an original catalogue from Richard Hamilton’s. Growth and Form exhibition (1951) and

digital art Digital art, or the digital arts, is artistic work that uses Digital electronics, digital technology as part of the creative or presentational process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960 ...

of cellular forms by

Andy Lomas Andy Lomas (born 1967 in Welwyn Garden City, England) is a British artist with a mathematical background, formerly a television and film CG supervisor and more recently a contemporary digital artist, with a special interest in morphogenesis us ...

References

External links

Museum website
Biology education in the United Kingdom Museums with year of establishment missing Zoology museums in Scotland Natural history museums in Scotland University museums in Scotland Thompson, D'Arcy Museums in Dundee University of Dundee 1880s establishments in Scotland Museums established in 1880 Digital art {{Scotland-struct-stub