Using CT scans and the latest medical visualisation techniques experts have been able to uncover insights into the life of Ta-Kheru, an Ancient Egyptian woman whose ceremonially mummified remains have been in the University of Aberdeen museums’ collections since the 18^th century. The exhibition tells the story of Ta-Kheru, alongside an impressive holographic display of the CT scan and a facial reconstruction of The Lady of the House.

The exhibition between October and December 2018 had over 6500 visits and was accompanied by a series of talks by specialists from the Roemer- und Pelizaeus- Museum and an expert in facial reconstruction.

This exhibition showcases Audubon’s spectacular ‘Birds of America’, a metre-high book filled with Audubon’s stunning life-size colour depictions of American bird species, with text prepared by MacGillivray. It explores the travels of both men – including MacGillivray’s often humorous account of his epic journey on foot from Aberdeen to London – and their legacies in the worlds of zoology, ornithology and environmental conservation.

The exhibition was first shown in the Sir Duncan Rice Library Gallery in 2019. Some of the text in this online version has been changed in order to more fully represent the racial history of John James Audubon, and to acknowledge the part that people of colour had in the creation of Birds of America.