Property: Natural
History Museum
Board: London - Here and Now Limited
Edition (2005)
Colour:
Orange
Original 1935
Property: Tennessee Avenue
Details of Property:
Wikipedia
[visit link] tells us:
"The Natural History Museum is one
of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England
(the others are the Science Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum). Its
main frontage is on Cromwell Road. The museum is an exempt charity, and a
non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport.
The museum is home to life and
earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within five main
collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology. The
museum is a world-renowned centre of research, specialising in taxonomy,
identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the
collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens
collected by Darwin. The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive
books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and
research of the scientific departments. Access to the library is by appointment
only.
The museum is particularly famous
for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons, and ornate architecture — sometimes
dubbed a cathedral of nature — both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast
which dominates the vaulted central hall.
Originating from collections within
the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened
by 1881, and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a
more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the
valuable collections.
Like other publicly funded national
museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not levy an
admission charge.
The foundation of the collection
was that of the Ulster doctor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), who allowed his
significant collections to be purchased by the British Government at a price
well below their market value at the time. This purchase was funded by a
lottery. Sloane's collection, which included dried plants, and animal and human
skeletons, was initially housed in Montague House in Bloomsbury in 1756, which
was the home of the British Museum.
Most of the Sloane collection had
disappeared by the early decades of the nineteenth century. Sir George Shaw
(Keeper of Zoology 1806-13) sold many specimens to the Royal College of
Surgeons. His successor William Elford Leach made periodical bonfires in the
grounds of the museum. In 1833 the Annual Report states that, of the 5,500
insects listed in the Sloane catalogue, none remained. The inability of the
natural history departments to conserve its specimens became notorious: the
Treasury refused to entrust it with specimens collected at the government's
expense. Appointments of staff were bedevilled by gentlemanly favoritism; in
1862 a nephew of the mistress of a Trustee was appointed Entomological Assistant
despite not knowing the difference between a butterfly and a
moth.
J.E. Gray (Keeper of Zoology
1840-74) complained of the incidence of mental illness amongst staff: George
Shaw threatened to put his foot on any shell not in the 12th edition of
Linnaeus' Systema Naturae; another had removed all the labels and registration
numbers from entomological cases arranged by a rival. The huge collection of
conchologist Hugh Cuming was acquired by the museum, and Gray's own wife had
carried the open trays across the courtyard in a gale: all the labels blew away.
That collection is said never to have recovered.
The Principal Librarian at the time
was Antonio Panizzi; his contempt for the natural history departments and for
science in general was total. The general public was not encouraged to visit the
Museum's natural history exhibits. In 1835 to a Select Committee of Parliament,
Sir Henry Ellis said this policy was fully approved by the Principal Librarian
and his senior colleagues.
Many of these faults were corrected
by Richard Owen, appointed Superintendent of the natural history departments of
the British Museum in 1856. His changes led Bill Bryson to write that "by making
the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our
expectations of what museums are for".
Owen saw that the natural history
departments needed more space, and that implied a separate building as the
British Museum site was limited. Land in South Kensington was purchased, and in
1864 a competition was held to design the new museum. The winning entry was
submitted by civil engineer Captain Francis Fowke who died shortly afterwards.
The scheme was taken over by Alfred Waterhouse who substantially revised the
agreed plans, and designed the façades in his own idiosyncratic Romanesque style
which was inspired by his frequent visits to the Continent. The original plans
included wings on either side of the main building, but these plans were soon
abandoned for budgetary reasons. The space these would have occupied are now
taken by the Earth Galleries and Darwin Centre.
Work began in 1873 and was
completed in 1880. The new museum opened in 1881, although the move from the old
museum was not fully completed until 1883.
Both the interiors and exteriors of
the Waterhouse building make extensive use of terracotta tiles to resist the
sooty climate of Victorian London, manufactured by the Tamworth-based company of
Gibbs and Canning Limited. The tiles and bricks feature many relief sculptures
of flora and fauna, with living and extinct species featured within the west and
east wings respectively. This explicit separation was at the request of Owen,
and has been seen as a statement of his contemporary rebuttal of Darwin's
attempt to link present species with past through the theory of natural
selection.
The central axis of the museum is
aligned with the tower of Imperial College London (formerly the Imperial
Institute) and the Royal Albert Hall and Albert Memorial further north. These
all form part of the complex known colloquially as
Albertopolis."
Board link:
Wikipedia.