[3] Thompson began acquiring specimens for a museum immediately on taking up the post of Professor of Biology at what was then University College, Dundee in 1885.

The remaining material was kept in storage for many years before new museum displays were created in the Biological Sciences Institute in the 1980s.

[5] The museum has a collection of birds, fish, insects, mammals, and reptiles from around the world, together with many of D'Arcy Thompson's original models and teaching aids, including Glass Sea Creatures by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka and model and fluid preparations by Vaclav Fric.

Many of the specimens and models relate to Thompson's interest in mathematical biology, which led to his celebrated book On Growth and Form.

[7] It includes works by Henry Moore, Victor Pasmore, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, William Turnbull and Salvador Dalí, an original catalogue from Richard Hamilton’s.