An artist's impression of the refurbished museum including a whale's skeleton
A museum in Cambridgeshire has closed for three years as it begins a £3.67m refurbishment.
Cambridge University's Museum of Zoology, which houses four million specimens, has been at its Downing Street site since 1865.
It is hoped that funding for the project will come from the Heritage Lottery Fund and charitable bodies.
Project manager Kay Smith said it will then be "accessible to everyone from small children to adults".
The completed project will focus on the stories behind the
collections and of the people associated with them, including Charles
Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, Hugh Edwin Strickland and Hugh Cott.
'Understanding animals'
This whale skeleton has been hanging at the entrance of the museum for years
This whale skeleton has been hanging at the entrance of the museum for years Ms Smith said the refurbishment will result in "slightly more"
items on display as well as offering "state-of-the-art storage areas for
all the collections".
"We will have greatly improved interpretation within the
museum which will focus on explaining to the general public the
significance of the collections and the importance of our understanding
the animal," she said.
"We are also working hard to ensure that our interpretation
is suitable and accessible to everyone from small children to adults,
from those with little knowledge of the collections to the academic
visitor."
The Museum of Zoology receives around 70,000 visitors each year, including school parties and visiting academics.
The original Victorian museum was demolished in 1965 and moved into a 515 sq m (1, 689 sq ft) building in the early 1970s.
When the project is complete the museum will be slightly larger at 560 sq m (1,837 sq ft).
The university has received a Stage 1 grant of £180,800 from
the Heritage Lottery Fund and will be applying for a Stage 2 grant of
£1.4m.
Source : BBC , 4th June 2013
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