On 29 Nov 1895 the Museum extension was opened by 
Sir William Henry Fowler, Director of the British Museum and a comparative anatomist.
It housed the Perthshire Gallery, a collection of local animals, plants and rocks. The ground floor contained the vertebrate animals and in the gallery above were plants, insects, shells, rocks, minerals and fossils. At the time the Museum was declared one of the best in layout and design in Scotland.