Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (FGS, FLS) was the sculptor who created the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. Specifically, he created over thirty statues of prehistoric animals for the Crystal Palace and Park (Sydenham), which opened in June 1854. The statues included dinosaurs (Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, and Hylaeosaurus), Mesozoic marine reptiles (Plesiosaurus, Ichthyosaurus, and Mosasaurus), other extinct reptiles (Dicynodon and Labyrinthdon), and mammals from the Tertiary Period (Anoplotherium and Palaeotherium) and Quaternary Period (Megaloceros and Glyptodont). Others were planned but not built.
Hawkins was a skilled promoter of his works. He engineered the famous “Dinner in the Iguanodon” media event for New Years Eve, 31 December 1853.
Hawkins discussed his famous statues – and his underlying ambitions for the exhibition as a whole – in an evening lecture at the Royal Society of Arts on Wednesday May 17, 1854. He toured the country with the same material. The Crystal Palace and Park in Sydenham was on the verge of opening (details), and publicity for that event was well underway, including Royal visits by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins on Visual Education
There’s more than publicity in Hawkins’ lecture. The statues demonstrated the principle of “visual education,” he explain. This can be summarised as, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Children will remember what they see far longer than anything they might read, he argued. Education needed to make more use of visual materials, he said, and educators needed to work harder to create visually useful materials for the classroom.
Together with his lecture that evening, Waterhouse Hawkins also put on display models and drawings of his sculptures for viewing, plus sixty photographs by Philip H. De la Motte (view some of these photographs via English Heritage or in book form via Crystal Palace Foundation). Waterhouse Hawkins delivered this talk elsewhere in England during 1854.
The Morning Post (London) called his talk “highly interesting and very able” (19 May). The Standard (London) reported the lecture, too (19 May). On the same day, the society published Waterhouse Hawkins’ lecture in full:
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Waterhouse Hawkins, Benjamin. 1854. On Visual Education As Applied to Geology, Illustrated By Diagrams and Models of the Geological Restorations at the Crystal Palace. Journal of the Society of Arts 2 (78, May 19, 1854): 443-449 <jstor.org/stable/i23850939>.
The text of Hawkins’ lecture has been reprinted several times. What’s exciting about reading the original volume printing his lecture is a glimpse at the post-lecture discussion. It’s clear his audience was amazed by the quality of his work. They also took up his point about education, suggesting the models might be copied and distributed to schools across the country. Some were, with copies still on display in museums.
Hawkins also played a significant, but unsung, role in the creation of the visitor’s guide to the statues:
- Owen, Richard. 1854. Geology and Inhabitants of the Ancient World (London: Crystal Palace Company), 48 pages. 2013 facsimile edition By Euston Grove Press. ISBN 9781906267360.
Lecture by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins on Visual Education
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