
The Anatomical Venuses and Slashed Beauties created in the late eighteenth century by the studio at ‘La Specola’ Natural History Museum in Florence, Italy, under the leadership of Clemente Susini are the perfect specimens, though to refer to them as specimens or, indeed, even as ‘objects’ seems wrong-headed, besides the point, an insult to their utterly persuasive [...]
Compound Ascidian (Sea Squirt), D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, University of Dundee
Submitted by: Matthew Jarron
In the late nineteenth century Dundee was the European capital of the whaling industry, a fleet of up to sixteen ships sailing for the Arctic every year. Professor D’Arcy Thompson, recognising the potential for his Zoology Museum, made friends with the whalers and encouraged them to bring back specimens for him. In time he built [...]