The Zoology Museum was initiated in 1922 by Professor Fantham, the first head of the Zoology Department at the Wits University in Johannesburg. He perceived that a teaching collection was an essential adjunct to the department and thus the first specimens purchased were from European firms and comprised largely of a phylogenetic range of bottled specimens and articulated skeletons.
Over the years small reference collections of butterflies, shells, frogs and marine material were acquired. Under the headship of Professors Van der Horst and then Balinsky, an important research collection of over 40 000 embryological histology slides was built up and is the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. The total collection comprises over 60 000 specimens.
The Life Sciences Museum and Biodiversity Center was formed in 2003 when the Zoology Museum and the C.E. Moss Herbarium moved into the present space. For a number of years prior to this, the Zoology Museum had been housed on parts of three floors of the Old Education Building. The display space was very cramped and storage areas were in poor condition, damp and completely inadequate. The Herbarium was full to capacity, partly due to an underestimation of the size of the collection during planning.
Today, the Zoology Museum is conveniently situated close to the Biophy Library, lecture theaters and teaching labs. Displays and exhibitions can occupy the open areas of Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building as well as the museum proper, and the gardens and outdoor areas near the museum are used for live displays.
