By 1893, Professor Thompson’s collection has outgrown its shelves, and with a new extension, his very own museum is built. Just picture a room packed with exotic creatures, glass sea beasties swirling with bubbles, and beautiful models showing off the wild patterns and numbers that rule nature’s designs. Scientists, students, and even curious locals all squeezed in for a peek-like trying to fit a whale in a bathtub, but a lot less soggy.
Of course, nothing lasts forever. In the 1950s, the museum is demolished to make way for the university’s new Tower Building (the collection had to go somewhere else-don’t worry, no animals were harmed, but some dust bunnies may have been displaced). The specimens went into storage for years, no doubt plotting their comeback.
And come back they did! In the 1980s and later in 2007, the museum reopened in the Carnelley Building, bigger and better, proudly carrying D’Arcy’s name. Inside, you’ll find glass sea creatures so lifelike you’ll want to poke them, rare animals from Antarctic expeditions, and even bits of now-extinct species-like the mysterious Thylacine, Dundee’s very own “Where’s Waldo” of the animal kingdom.
If you fancy the artistic side of science, there’s artwork inspired by D’Arcy’s own writing-imagine Henry Moore and Salvador Dalí joining forces with zebras and octopuses! So, step inside, let your curiosity roam, and remember: in this museum, even the extinct animals make a comeback. Now, shall we go find some mathematical mammals?
