Professor Francis Cole founded it in 1906 when the university was known as University College Reading. The Cole Museum of Zoology has long been used to teach zoology and comparative anatomy, and it offers a snapshot of animal variety in the early twentieth century. Thousands of zoological specimens, including taxidermy, skeletons, histology preparations, fluid-preserved dissections, fossil material, castings, and some excellent representations of developmental phases and extinct creatures, are housed at the Museum.