{"id":2447,"date":"2021-05-17T14:00:51","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T13:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk\/dundeeuniculture\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:46:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T09:46:48","slug":"the-nature-of-empire-decolonising-the-darcy-thompson-zoology-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/the-nature-of-empire-decolonising-the-darcy-thompson-zoology-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nature of Empire \u2013 Decolonising the D\u2019Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wed 26 May 6pm \u2013 7.15pm<\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">Like many natural history museums, D\u2019Arcy Thompson\u2019s zoology collection was largely acquired during the colonial era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of the museum\u2019s specimens come from colonies and dominions of the British Empire as well as the colonies of other European countries. Often, these animals were killed by trophy hunters or by the agents of professional natural history dealers who exploited other countries in order to collect animals for profit. Some of the specimens in the museum are from species that are now extinct or endangered because of colonial activity, and the scientific research that such specimens were collected for often reinforced racist or colonial beliefs.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2448\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2448\" style=\"width: 746px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2021\/04\/thumbnail_Falkland-Birds-edited-detail-for-eventbrite.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2448\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2021\/04\/thumbnail_Falkland-Birds-edited-detail-for-eventbrite-300x146.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"746\" height=\"363\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2021\/04\/thumbnail_Falkland-Birds-edited-detail-for-eventbrite-300x146.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2021\/04\/thumbnail_Falkland-Birds-edited-detail-for-eventbrite-1024x499.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2021\/04\/thumbnail_Falkland-Birds-edited-detail-for-eventbrite-768x374.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2021\/04\/thumbnail_Falkland-Birds-edited-detail-for-eventbrite.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 746px) 100vw, 746px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2448\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">detail from an illustration created for the project by MSc Medical Art student Lucy Southwell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">This live online event explores some of the previously hidden stories of the museum\u2019s connections to empire, slavery and racism, as part of an on-going project to decolonise the collections. We are also delighted to welcome guest speakers to provide further context to the project.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speakers \u2013<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Jarron, Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee<\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">\u00a0<\/span><span lang=\"en-US\">Philom\u00e8ne Dubrun, MPhil student in Museum &amp; Gallery Studies at the University of St Andrews<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sheila Asante, Project Manager for Empire, Slavery &amp; Scotland\u2019s Museums at Museums Galleries Scotland<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca Machin, Natural Sciences Curator at Leeds Museums &amp; Galleries and a PhD student at the University of Leeds<\/p>\n<p>The event is free and places can be booked via:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.co.uk\/e\/the-nature-of-empire-decolonising-the-darcy-thompson-zoology-museum-tickets-151999399295\">https:\/\/www.eventbrite.co.uk\/e\/the-nature-of-empire-decolonising-the-darcy-thompson-zoology-museum-tickets-151999399295<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wed 26 May 6pm \u2013 7.15pm Like many natural history museums, D\u2019Arcy Thompson\u2019s zoology collection was largely acquired during the colonial era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of the museum\u2019s specimens come from colonies and dominions of the British Empire as well as the colonies of other European countries. Often, these [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":550,"featured_media":2448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-museums"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/550"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6304,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions\/6304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}