Exhibition Archive: POO!

What’s the scoop on poop? Thackray’s Summer 2025 exhibition POO!  lifts the lid on toilet talk.

It’s time to get to the bottom of digestion with POO!, a bold, fun and unforgettable new family exhibition. Designed for children (and their curious grown-ups), POO! transforms toilet talk into science fun, turning what can be seen as a taboo topic into a more interactive learning adventure that’s equal parts educational and fascinating. 

‘POO!’ has been curated in response to real questions from curious local children at Harehills Primary School, one of nine local schools the Thackray works in partnership with to improve and diversify their learning programming. From “why is a fart colourless?” to “how do you get constipated?”, this hands-on exhibition explores the science of what happens after we eat; diving into digestion, diet, disease and everything in between. Through smell (oh yes!), touch and discovery, POO! reveals the complex world of the human body, all through the lens of possibly our most remarkable bodily function. 

Jack Gann, Curator at the Thackray Museum of Medicine, said:

“We wanted to create something that speaks to children on their level – funny, surprising and bursting with real science. Poo is something everyone understands but rarely talks about. Through hands-on activities and items from our 81,000-strong collection, we’ve created something amusing, accessible and full of discovery. If it’s about poo, we’ve probably got the answer!”  

The exhibition is split into three main themes, guiding visitors through: 

• The colour, smell and textures of poo – why poo smells and why it is brown. 

• Diet and digestion – how food turns into poo and why some things pass through unchanged. 

• Germs and diseases – the good, the bad and the medical insights that come from learning about the germs found in poo. 

Exhibits can be found throughout the museum, encouraging visitors to encounter a fascinating collection of objects from a real-life 12th Century Medieval poo to a proctogram chair, used when understanding issues related to bowel movements.  Other star items range from Victorian constipation cures, to vintage laxative adverts; a poo sphere encased in resin from the National Poo Museum, to puzzle postcards advertising patent medicine Seth Arnold’s Balsam, marketed as a remedy for bowel and digestive issues dating back to the 19th Century – all part of the exhibition’s quirky charm. 

The archaeological material exhibited in ‘POO!’ was excavated by York Archaeological Trust for Excavation and Research Limited and is loaned by and cared for by York Archaeology. 

POO! ran between July 2025 and January 2026. To check out our latest exhibitions, visit our What’s On pages.