Cole Museum of Zoology

The Cole Museum of Zoology is a university museum, part of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading. It is located on the ground floor of the Health and Life Sciences building on the university's Whiteknights Campus in the town of Reading, Berkshire, England. The collection was established in 1907.

Cole Museum of Zoology

The skeleton of the circus elephant that dominates the main floor of the museum
Location within Reading
Established	Early 20th century
Location	Reading, Berkshire, UK
Coordinates	51.442375°N 0.945414°W / 51.442375; -0.945414
Type	University museum
Collections	Zoology
Curator	Dr Amanda Callaghan[1]
Website	reading.ac.uk/colemuseum/

History

The collection was established in the early 20th century by Professor of Zoology Francis J. Cole, along with Dr Nellie B. Eales, who catalogued the collection, and Mr Stoneman. The collection was assembled between 1907 and 1939, at which point Cole retired. On Cole's death in 1959, the University also purchased his library of books, which are kept as a special collection in the main library.^[2]

The museum was housed at the University's London Road Campus until the 1970s, when it was moved to the Whiteknights Campus. The museum moved to a new location in the Health and Life Sciences building, still on the Whiteknights Campus, in 2021.^[3]

Collections

It contains about 4,000 specimens of which about 400 are on display at any one time. Specimens are arranged in 14 cases in taxonomic sequence, thus enabling a complete tour of the diversity of the animal kingdom. Specimens include a male Indian circus elephant skeleton, a 5-metre reticulated python skeleton containing 400 vertebrae, a fossil of the largest spider to ever have lived, and a false killer whale skeleton.^[3]

The museum also hosts the collection as a virtual museum.^[4]

The collections are maintained by staff from the University's School of Biological Sciences.^[3]

See also

• University of Reading