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The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, which has played an important role in developing science and culture, is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

Founded in 1860 and featuring internationally important entomological, geological, mineralogical and zoological collections, this University Museum has been instrumental to say the least in transforming ways in which its collections are presented.

From Artdaily.org:

OXFORD.- Highlights of the year-long programme of special events include the first exhibition in the west of the extraordinary 525 million year old Chengjiang fossils from China (17 May – 14 November 2010) a high profile lecture series with speakers including Sir David Attenborough on Birds of Paradise (20 October 2010) and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy on Symmetry (27 October 2010), a one-woman show and exhibition to mark the centenary of Oxford Nobel prize-winner Dorothy Hodgkin (10 May 2010), and a Son et Lumiere and Pitt Rivers Museum Torchlight Trail (28 May 2010). There will be a number of special exhibitions including the Wonderland of Natural History 1860-2010 about the development of the museum’s remarkable building (26 May – 31 December 2010) and a Huxley Wilberforce Debate (11 September 2010).

From the outset the Oxford University Museum of Natural History has played an important role in the development of science and culture. It was in the museum in 1860 that the celebrated debate on Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species took place between the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Henry Huxley. It is also where Nobel Laureate Dorothy Hodgkin worked for many years.

At the core of the museum are internationally important entomological, geological, mineralogical and zoological collections, in all over 5.78 million specimens. They include the earliest surviving British natural history specimens, insects and other animals collected by Charles Darwin, the only surviving remains of the Dodo, the Tsetse Fly collected by David Livingstone, and the first scientifically described remains of dinosaurs. The Museum itself is a Grade 1 listed building, renowned for its spectacular neo-Gothic architecture.

Director of the Museum, Professor Jim Kennedy, remarked that the Oxford University Museum of Natural History is one of the most visited places in Oxford.