Darwin Centre foyer 

A few years ago, the Natural History Museum finished a new wing called the Darwin Centre. This was built to house their collection of millions of “wet” animal specimens (stored in “spirits”) and to make the public aware that the museum does more than exhibit stuffed penguins and dinosaur bones.

When we got to the Darwin Centre, a biologist, Paul Eggleton, was giving a talk about his work on African termites as a public service kind of thing. Pretty cool stuff, actually. We went on a tour of the collections and saw the racks and racks of glass jars filled with animals and alcohol, including some fish that Darwin had collected on the HMS Beagle 150 years ago. In the basement they have huge coffin-like cases filled with larger animals like komodo dragons, swordfish, and gorillas. It’s pretty gory but fascinating anyway.