The acquisition books show that once housed in the Ashworth
Laboratories on West Mains Road, the collection was enlarged continuously from
1928 onwards. It was cared for by a full time curator,
registered as an official Natural History Collection by the
Scottish Museum Council and open to the public. It now holds
many historically and scientifically important specimens.
Most prominent among these is the collection of corals
donated by Sir Maurice Yonge.
Yonge, who graduated under Professor Ashworth, was
selected at the age of 28 to direct and lead a sixteen month
expedition to the Great Barrier Reef. Ashworth took
advantage of this expedition, the first of its kind to study
the general ecological aspects of a coral reef, to ask Yonge
to make a coral collection specially for the museum. These
corals are now the subject of a special display in memory of
Sir Maurice, who spent the years of his retirement in the
department.
Among this comprehensive collection of invertebrate and
vertebrate specimens are to be found such diverse items as:
- Two large sea shells, the sole article of dress of
the inhabitants of the Admiralty Isles, which had
never been visited by scientists until 'Challenger' went
there in 1874,
- jellyfish and sea-spiders from one of the 'Discovery'
voyages,
- giant Australian earthworms,
- Emperor Penguin eggs brought back from Scott's ill
fated quest for the South Pole,
- an incredible selection of finely crafted papier
mache models ranging from sea urchins to a life size
human figure
- as well as the squid brought back to the department
from Port Seton in a bucket by Mrs Ashworth, the
Professor's wife.
It would appear that Mrs Ashworth was every bit as
determined as her husband. When he died she replaced the
portrait of Charles Darwin that hung in the library with a
picture of her late husband.
After Ashworth's death in 1936, the department continued
to flourish. The Professors of Natural History and Zoology
continue to be eminent scientists and public figures. Under
the influence of these Professors and advances in knowledge
and technology, the department has evolved so that the
diverse disciplines under which animals and their biology
are studied are well represented. In addition to teaching
and research in the topics originally covered in 1928 -
vertebrate zoology and physiology, invertebrate zoology,
parasitology
and entomology - the department now also teaches and carries
out research into: immunology, HIV and AIDS,
developmental biology, ecology and behaviour and cellular
and molecular aspects of animal biology and evolution.
The major distinction between the work of the Department
now and in Ashworth's time is the experimental nature of
modern Zoology; a natural progression from the descriptive
nature of the work done in the first quarter of the
twentieth century. A five-storey extension, built in the
1960s, houses the research laboratories. To reflect
these changes, the department is now known as the Institute of
Cell, Animal and Population Biology (ICAPB).
ICAPB HOME PAGE
The museum area, as laid out by Ashworth, flourished
until the 1950's when, unfortunately, the need for increased
laboratory space which accompanied significant rises in
student intake came to be more important than the needs of
the collection. The wall dividing the main teaching
laboratory from the museum was, therefore, knocked down and
many of the cases were moved either into the corridor or
upstairs to the gallery. The three pillars in the main
laboratory show where the dividing wall once stood. This
reduction in display area meant that many specimens,
particularly the larger stuffed animals and mounted heads
had to be discarded. Fortunately, the small invertebrate
material and many of the smaller vertebrate specimens
escaped this purge and remained in their cases. The general
reduction in space led inevitably to the remaining display
cases serving only as store cupboards and specimens were
tucked away in all sorts of nooks, crannies and ducts
throughout the department.
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