Day 2 of touring London
I cannot even begin to describe the Natural History Museum.
Here. I will let Wikipedia relate a few of the less interesting details:
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.
Here is one of the more interesting details, via wiki:
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.
AND:
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.
…
Following this little history lesson, I’ll begin my little blog entry about Monday’s gorgeous touristy day.
As you can tell, Joren and I journeyed into the city center once again to have a nice long day of science and history. We started our day at the Natural History Museum, coming up Cromwell Street to encounter this giant Victorian façade glinting in the sunlight. Joren freaked out and started taking pictures right away and didn’t stop as we entered the enormous front gallery. A brontosaurus greeted us at the door, with Darwin sitting on a marble chair far in the distance. The vaulted ceiling felt a thousand feet high and was covered in watercolored pressed flowers. We looked around the front gallery for a moment, and then just entered the first door on the left – the dinosaur gallery.
For the next three hours, we wandered with aimless purpose through the first floor, viewing bone casts next to billion year-old skulls, taxidermied gazelles and plaster mold blue whales, skeletons hanging from the ceiling and hundreds of intricate dusty ancient pieces of mankind’s history. The atmosphere set the tone, and it wasn’t long before both Jor and I declared a love for Victorian architecture.
From the Natural History Museum, it was just a turn of the corner to enter the Science Museum, another four storey granite monolith devoted to all things modern. I followed the history of the Industrial Revolution, from tiny little start to big time finish. I viewed all things mechanical and stood before an eight-foot balloon of the earth with projections of weather patterns, light noise and traffic patterns. Finally, after hearing it gong twice for the three and four o’clock hour, I ventured up to floor two and watched an ancient mechanical clock chime the hour.
By five pm, we were both a little worn out with museum knowledge and decided a walk through Hyde Park was just the thing. I’ve always loved parks (who doesn’t) but this one was particularly wonderful. It was like a wilderness, tamed once upon a time and then set loose again, right in the middle of the world’s first Industrial Revolutionary city. Jor and I wandered into Hyde Park, and we were immediately confronted with the enormous gilded monument to Prince Albert.
After recovering from the grandeur of this testament to colonial power, I rested my eyes on wild shrubbery, geese in flight, manmade ponds and rows of two hundred year old trees. The days are good.
Here. I will let Wikipedia relate a few of the less interesting details:
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.
Here is one of the more interesting details, via wiki:
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.
AND:
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.
…
Following this little history lesson, I’ll begin my little blog entry about Monday’s gorgeous touristy day.
As you can tell, Joren and I journeyed into the city center once again to have a nice long day of science and history. We started our day at the Natural History Museum, coming up Cromwell Street to encounter this giant Victorian façade glinting in the sunlight. Joren freaked out and started taking pictures right away and didn’t stop as we entered the enormous front gallery. A brontosaurus greeted us at the door, with Darwin sitting on a marble chair far in the distance. The vaulted ceiling felt a thousand feet high and was covered in watercolored pressed flowers. We looked around the front gallery for a moment, and then just entered the first door on the left – the dinosaur gallery.
For the next three hours, we wandered with aimless purpose through the first floor, viewing bone casts next to billion year-old skulls, taxidermied gazelles and plaster mold blue whales, skeletons hanging from the ceiling and hundreds of intricate dusty ancient pieces of mankind’s history. The atmosphere set the tone, and it wasn’t long before both Jor and I declared a love for Victorian architecture.
From the Natural History Museum, it was just a turn of the corner to enter the Science Museum, another four storey granite monolith devoted to all things modern. I followed the history of the Industrial Revolution, from tiny little start to big time finish. I viewed all things mechanical and stood before an eight-foot balloon of the earth with projections of weather patterns, light noise and traffic patterns. Finally, after hearing it gong twice for the three and four o’clock hour, I ventured up to floor two and watched an ancient mechanical clock chime the hour.
By five pm, we were both a little worn out with museum knowledge and decided a walk through Hyde Park was just the thing. I’ve always loved parks (who doesn’t) but this one was particularly wonderful. It was like a wilderness, tamed once upon a time and then set loose again, right in the middle of the world’s first Industrial Revolutionary city. Jor and I wandered into Hyde Park, and we were immediately confronted with the enormous gilded monument to Prince Albert.
After recovering from the grandeur of this testament to colonial power, I rested my eyes on wild shrubbery, geese in flight, manmade ponds and rows of two hundred year old trees. The days are good.
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