Book on UCL Grant Museum of Zoology UCL’s Grant Museum of Zoology moved to The Thomas Lewis Room in UCL’s Rockefeller Building in 2011. This book answers popular historical questions about the room, the building, and the wider university and medical school environment. The aim is to investigate basic historical questions visitors have had about the space, some of the architectural details, and the building’s…
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…
The web is full of commentaries about Piltdown Man and its exposure as a fraud. But where is the original locality? The exact location – the spot on the map – is well known to specialists. If you’re looking to find it, details here. The locality is not open to the public. It is located on private land. ” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″] The location…
Every scientific discipline has inside jokes. Why? Because they perform social or intellectual work. In this post, Professor Joe Cain links jokelore to his project on one of biology’s most famous jokes, the Rhinogradentia, or “snouters”. This page supports a research paper published on the subject and provides additional materials. Historical research paper on Rhinogradentia Joe Cain. (2018). In My Tribe: What the Snouters (and…
When asked about the Origin of Species and the theory of natural selection, Thomas Henry Huxley told friends, “how extremely stupid not to have thought of that”. This is well-known folklore, and much has been made of it. Though often repeated, it rarely is traced to its source and considered in its full frame. Just where did Huxley say this, and what’s the original context?…
This page provides information about this otherwise lost magazine in the 1920s and 1930s devoted to promoting the teaching of evolution in US public schools. It was titled, Evolution: A Journal of Nature (EJN). It was produced by pro-evolutionists following the Scopes Trial in 1925 to give teachers material for responding to creationist pressures. Contents In the first issue, the Editor, Ludwig Erwin Ketterfeld described…
This article, titled “Dinner in the Iguanodon,” first appeared on the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs History Blog in July 2013. Dinner in the Iguanodon The “Dinner in the Iguanodon Model” is the best known story about Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. It took place on New Year’s Eve 31 December 1853 and was immortalised in the picture published in Illustrated London News, 7 January 1854, p. 22. “Mr Waterhouse Hawkins…
A series of oral history interviews in 1996 with Professor Robert E. Sloan (Bob) regarding his career, the recent history of paleontology, and the life of an American scientist in the second half of the twentieth century. These comprise 16 sessions, from tape recorded interviews. These transcripts are from cassette tapes now on deposit at University of Minnesota Archives, Twin Cities campus. The interviewer is Professor Joe…
This post on George Baxter was first published 13 August 2014 for Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. It is re-published here with amendments. Baxter Print Re-examined The famous ‘Baxter’ print of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs is a favourite for those who admire the site. The post investigates the print’s origin and describes what it can tell visitors about Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. Who made it? George Baxter…