A brief history of the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum - Dundee's most underrated museum

Picture: University of Dundee

Hidden in the Carnelley Building behind the imposing University of Dundee skyline, the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum is still among the city's best-kept secrets – a tiny but incredible room offering an entrancing glimpse into natural history, mathematical biology, and the life of one of Dundee's most illustrious sons.

Committed to the great Scottish biologist and mathematician D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860–1948), the museum dates back to the 1880s.

When appointed as the first Professor of Biology at University College, Dundee in 1884, Thompson wasted no time in beginning to collect together a teaching collection of zoological specimens.

By 1893, the growth of his department allowed him to build a purpose-built museum, which soon established itself as one of the largest and most significant university zoology collections in Britain.

The original museum was at its best – full of animals, skeletons, and marine life from all over the globe, many having been acquired in scientific expeditions or bought from other great collectors. But with development comes expense.

The museum was created by and later named after D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson who worked at the University of Dundee for 32 years. (Picture: Wikimedia Commons)

By 1957, the building was pulled down to make way for the Tower Building of the University, and most of the museum collection was dispersed.

What remained was stored away, forgotten until the 1980s, when a new museum display was founded in the Biological Sciences Institute. This too eventually fell victim to demolition.

In 2007, the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum won a new permanent home in the Carnelley Building, where it continues to teach and inspire to this day. Though more limited in extent than in its original incarnation, the new museum is no less potent.

It contains an extraordinary collection of zoological specimens – birds, fish, insects, mammals, and reptiles of the world – along with unorthodox models and preserved specimens employed by Thompson as didactic tools.

Among the highlight items are the stunning and intricate glass sea creatures created by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, and preserved preparations by Czech modeller Vaclav Fric.

These items, many of which date back over a century, are not only scientifically significant, but also of artistic value.

The museum also contains 27 rare specimens from the historic HMS Challenger expedition (1872–76), widely regarded as the beginning of modern oceanography.

It also houses artefacts from important polar and scientific expeditions like the Dundee Antarctic Expedition (1892–93), Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition (1907–09), and the Discovery Investigations of the 1930s.

There are also visions of once-extinct birds like the Huia and the Thylacine, which show the museum's dedication to preserving threatened natural history.

But it's not all about science geeks. The 1917 book On Growth and Form by D'Arcy Thompson, which discussed how mathematical laws build living things, has had a lasting impact on not only science but also art and design.

This is testified to by the fact that the museum holds a superb art collection inspired by Thompson's work. It features paintings by iconic names like Henry Moore, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Salvador Dalí, and Victor Pasmore, as well as digital artwork exploring cellular geometry by contemporary artist Andy Lomas.

Despite its marvellous collection and the rich history it discloses, the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum is often neglected. Quiet, atmospheric, and full of awe, it offers an uncommon experience: a chance to step into a great mind and find the beautiful connections between science, nature, and art.

The D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum opens to the general public on the second Saturday of every month, with the next session scheduled on Saturday, 10 May, from 2 pm to 4.30pm. If you enjoy science, art, or merely the history of Dundee, this gem of a museum will be a valuable visit.