Projects

Public Opinion newspaper front page 08 July 1912

Karl Pearson in rare media interview about eugenics in Public Opinion

Professor Karl Pearson rarely took media interviews. It was a point of principle. It also was a point of privilege. He hated criticism, and he had an extremely fragile personality. He deliberately insulated his work […]

Otter diorama in James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2013.

Newton Horace Winchell’s History of Geological Surveys in Minnesota (1889)

Newton Horace Winchell (1939-1914) had a profound effect on the size and shape of geological surveys in the American midwest. His 1889 History of Geological Surveys in Minnesota provides a good synopsis of, and some […]

Karl Pearson, 1910, University College London

Student Satire Aimed at Karl Pearson’s 1904 Eugenics Lecture

Historians of eugenics have been slow to research criticisms of eugenics from within research and learning communities. A notable exception is Ewa Barbara Luczak’s (2022) Mocking Eugenics: American Culture Against Scientific Hatred. (Also look for […]

George Gaylord Simpson in Paris 1947. APS Library. Colourised.

George Gaylord Simpson (1902-1984) bibliography

The American vertebrate paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson (1902–1984) published more than 700 original items. A general sense of Simpson’s career is provided by his autobiography (Simpson, 1978). Authoritative secondary sources are Laporte (2000) and Whittington […]

Autumn flower in garden at Bateman's, home of Rudyard Kipling, East Sussex

History of Botany at University College London (UCL) – First 100 years

When University College London (UCL) launched in 1826, botany was included in its academic range. In part, this was supported by its relationship to medicine and pharmacology. Also in part, it was related to systematics […]

Sketch of Dinner in Iguanodon Model as remembered by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, 1862. Source: Letter from Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins to Edward James Alfred Trimmer, 27 August, British Library Add MS 50150 f215. Photo: ProfJoeCain CC BY NC.

Remembering Dinner in the Dinosaur: Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins’ 1862 Sketch

Near the end of August 1862, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894) wrote to Edward Trimmer (1827-1904) with a brief mention of the New Year’s Eve dinner in Iguanodon mould. The letter included a small illustration of […]

Crystal Palace in Sydenham. Undated postcard 61 showing glasshouse, gardens, and fountains.

Crystal Palace Company – First Annual General Meeting 1853

Crystal Palace Company formed in 1852 to purchase the glasshouse and remains of the 1851 Great Exhibition and somehow – no plan was clear at the start – restart it in another location. Sydenham was […]

Dinner in the Iguanodon Model, at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham

Studio for Crystal Palace Dinosaurs: Enter The Extinct Animals Model-Room

The famous engraving of New Year’s Eve Dinner in Iguanodon, published in Illustrated London News on 07 January 1854, appeared only one week after readers of the popular weekly magazine were given a glimpse inside […]

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. 1854 Photograph.

Queen Victoria Visited Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Crystal Palace Dinosaurs several times during the site’s construction in 1853 and 1854. In November 1853, the Royals visited the Model-Room, or Studio, of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and observed […]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology