The Department of Zoology and the Hunterian Zoology Museum

An account is given of The Hunterian zoology collections, focusing on their history, development, management, care and uses in teaching, research and exhibition from John Graham Kerr’s time, in the early 1900s, to the present day. Over their 260-year existence, these collections have been housed in two cities and five different premises, and their curation and care has variously been shared between the Department of Zoology (formerly, in the 19th century, Natural History) and The Hunterian. John Graham Kerr passionately believed in the utility of museum specimens to support teaching in natural history. To this end, he ensured that a fine museum gallery with beautifully laid-out informative displays was a central feature of the new Zoology Building when it opened in 1923. One hundred years later, the profile of, access to, and use of the zoology collections are flourishing and the Zoology Museum retains its position as a valued teaching, learning and social space for Zoology, the wider university, and the public audience.