Breaking Ground
University of Oxford Museum of Natural History 

18 October 2024 – 1 September 2025

Client
University of Oxford Museum of Natural History

Location
Oxford

Role
Visual identity
Exhibition graphic design

Breaking Ground is the current  special exhibition at the University of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History. It showcases the lives and work of William Buckland and Mary Morland, the 19th-century power couple of palaeontology who are credited with identifying and naming the first dinosaur fossil – Megalosaurus. The exhibition reviews the similarities and differences between their work and how scientists and palaeontologists practice today. It looks at collecting, recording, theory and analysis, and the context of practice including how Mary was excluded from Victorian scientific communities because she was a women.

The exhibition design builds on the principles of the ‘Megalosaurus 200’ visual identity we also created. It was important to ensure the exhibition and its stories were felt to be relatable and relevant to people. Through use of scanned imagery, pattern and texture we created colourful case backdrops based on original watercolour washes produced in our studio, a nod to Mary’s scientific illustrations. We worked closely with the museum’s curators to coordinate object layouts, fixing methods and all graphic substrates, which were specified to be fully recyclable paper-based materials.