Online Exhibitions

Although the displays of Marischal Museum have been closed to the public since 2008, a virtual version of the displays is available for registered University of Aberdeen users. Please contact King’s Museum for more information.

Sir John Struthers, MD, LLD, FRCSE (1823-1899) occupied the chair of anatomy in the University of Aberdeen with distinction for 26 years. This was a time of great change in medical education, both locally and nationally. He spent much time and effort building up a museum of zoological specimens to illustrate Darwin's theory of common descent. Many of the specimens were prepared by himself and he became particularly interested in the study of nature's largest mammal - the whale.

Models have long been used in biological and medical education. Some of them are not merely functional but are exquisite works of art in their own right. The University of Aberdeen Zoology Museum is fortunate in having in its collections models made by some of the greatest exponents of the art.

Drawing exclusively on the University of Aberdeen’s historic collections, the exhibition explores the political, religious and economic factors that helped create the new kingdom of Great Britain, a process which was far from inevitable and not particularly popular, north or south of the border.

Rome's importance as an artistic centre was undisputed throughout the eighteenth century. After the deposition of the Catholic James VII and II in 1688, he maintained a Court in Rome which attracted Jacobite followers. They became tourist guides, tutors in architecture and archaeology, architects, decorators, art-dealers and conoisseurs. Eminent amongst these virtuosi was a group of Scots, all with Jacobite connections.