Grant Museum of Zoology

Grant Museum of Zoology

Grant Museum of Zoology
Rockefeller Building
University College London
21 University Street
Camden
London
WC1E 6DE

Tel: 020 3108 2052
E-Mail: zoology.museum@ucl.ac.uk

Web: Grant Museum of Zoology

About Grant Museum of Zoology

The Grant Museum is the only remaining university zoological museum in London.

It houses around 62,000 specimens, covering the whole Animal Kingdom. Founded in 1827 as a teaching collection, the Museum is packed full of skeletons, mounted animals and specimens preserved in fluid. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct including the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine, the quagga, and the dodo.

Brief History on the Grant Museum of Zoology

The Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy is a natural history museum that is part of University College London in London, England. It was established by Robert Edmond Grant in 1828 as a teaching collection of zoological specimens and material for dissection. On his death Grant left his own collection to the museum. In 1875 Edwin Ray Lankester added to the museum collection. Later lecturer curators include W. F. R. Weldon (1860–1906), Edward Alfred Minchin, an embryologist named J. P. Hill and a palaeontologist named D. M. S. Watson. After 1948 the museum was under the care of professional curators.

The museum conserves around 67,000 specimens, many of which are very rare and several of which have been rediscovered only recently in storage.

In 2011, the museum moved from its previous location on the UCL campus to new quarters in Rockefeller Hall.