Author: Caroline Lam

Photograph of Down House, home of Charles Darwin

Title: Photograph of Down House, home of Charles Darwin

Creator: unknown

Description: By the 1920s, Charles Darwin’s home Down House in Kent had been operating as a series of girls’ schools. Following an appeal by the President of the British Association Sir Arthur Keith in 1927, that the house should be in national possession, it was purchased by George Buckston Browne, FRCS, from Darwin’s grandson. Browne gifted it, along with an endowment of £20,000 to the British Association for it to be run as museum and where it was overseen by a special ‘Down House Committee’. The photographs were commissioned by the BA’s Down House Committee and donated to a number of different organisations connected with the naturalist with a view to the images being put on permanent display.

The house is now owned by English Heritage.

Date: 1935

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1050/3

Image reference: 25-03

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Photograph of Down House, home of Charles Darwin

Title: Photograph of Down House, home of Charles Darwin

Creator: unknown

Description: By the 1920s, Charles Darwin’s home Down House in Kent had been operating as a series of girls’ schools. Following an appeal by the President of the British Association Sir Arthur Keith in 1927, that the house should be in national possession, it was purchased by George Buckston Browne, FRCS, from Darwin’s grandson. Browne gifted it, along with an endowment of £20,000 to the British Association for it to be run as museum and where it was overseen by a special ‘Down House Committee’. The photographs were commissioned by the BA’s Down House Committee and donated to a number of different organisations connected with the naturalist with a view to the images being put on permanent display.

The house is now owned by English Heritage.

Date: 1935

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1050/2

Image reference: 25-02

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Photograph of Down House, home of Charles Darwin

Title: Photograph of Down House, home of Charles Darwin

Creator: unknown

Description: By the 1920s, Charles Darwin’s home Down House in Kent had been operating as a series of girls’ schools. Following an appeal by the President of the British Association Sir Arthur Keith in 1927, that the house should be in national possession, it was purchased by George Buckston Browne, FRCS, from Darwin’s grandson. Browne gifted it, along with an endowment of £20,000 to the British Association for it to be run as museum and where it was overseen by a special ‘Down House Committee’. The photographs were commissioned by the BA’s Down House Committee and donated to a number of different organisations connected with the naturalist with a view to the images being put on permanent display.

The house is now owned by English Heritage.

Date: 1935

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1050/1

Image reference: 25-01

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Photograph of Down House, home of Charles Darwin

Title: Photograph of Down House, home of Charles Darwin

Creator: unknown

Description: By the 1920s, Charles Darwin’s home Down House in Kent had been operating as a series of girls’ schools. Following an appeal by the President of the British Association Sir Arthur Keith in 1927, that the house should be in national possession, it was purchased by George Buckston Browne, FRCS, from Darwin’s grandson. Browne gifted it, along with an endowment of £20,000 to the British Association for it to be run as museum and where it was overseen by a special ‘Down House Committee’. The photographs were commissioned by the BA’s Down House Committee and donated to a number of different organisations connected with the naturalist with a view to the images being put on permanent display.

The house is now owned by English Heritage.

Date: 1935

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1050/5

Image reference: 25-05

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

First Geological Map of Scotland [1808]

Title: First Geological Map of Scotland [1808]

Creator: Louis Albert Necker (1786-1861)

Description: Map entitled ‘Scotland coloured according to the rock formations’. Geological colouring on base map ‘North Britain or Scotland divided into its Counties, corrected from the best surveys and astronomical observations by Thomas Kitchin’, published by William Faden, 1 December 1778.

William Smith’s 1815 map is known as the first geological map of a country ever produced but there were actually earlier attempts.

This map, which is probably the earliest geological map of Scotland, was coloured by the Swiss mineralogist Louis Albert Necker (1786-1861) and was given to the Geological Society in 1808, only a year after our foundation in 1807.

Necker had travelled around Scotland between 1806-1808 and his broad, simple colouring is primarily based on the concepts of the German mineralogist Abraham Gottlieb Werner (1749-1817). Werner, whose ideas were prevalent at the beginning of the 19th century, had outlined the first chronological categorisation of rocks.

One can see that Necker has classified vast swathes of the country as being formed of ‘Primitive’ (what we would now term Precambrian) rocks — that is the oldest rocks.

Although not strictly accurate, it gives a glimpse of the geological thinking in the first years of the Society before Smith’s concepts had permeated into the burgeoning science.

Date: [1808]

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Archive reference: LDGSL/701

Image reference: 07-170

Recommended print size: Up to 70 x 50cm (27in x 20in)

Greenough’s and Sharpe’s Geological Map of Scotland [1852] – draft

Title: Greenough’s and Sharpe’s Geological Map of Scotland [1852]

Creator: George Bellas Greenough (1778-1855) and Daniel Sharpe (1806-1856)

Description: The first published geological map of Scotland was issued in 1836 under the (posthumous) authorship of John MacCulloch (1773-1835). The fieldwork alone had taken MacCulloch around 15 years to accomplish, but the reception to the map’s publication was rather negative from some quarters. Despite its topographical and geological errors, the map is not thought to have been superseded until the work of the Geological Survey in the 1860s.

On 23 July 1851 a committee headed by George Bellas Greenough was appointed by Council to assess the extent of the Society’s Map collection holdings and make suggestions as to its improvement. One of the recommendations was that a new geological map of Scotland should be produced. Council ordered that the Society should purchase a copy of Lewis’ Map of Scotland and that a further committee comprising of Greenough and Daniel Sharpe should undertake its geological colouring.

This copy is one of three drafts which are extant in the archive collection of George Bellas Greenough. The neat colouring indicates that it was probably intended to be the final, finished copy. Instead a further version was produced with a slightly different colour scheme.

Date: [1852]

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Archive reference: LDGSL/947/6/C/5

Image reference: 07-169

Recommended print size: Up to 100 x 70cm (40in x 27in)

Geological Map of England and Wales [1839] 2nd edition

Title: ‘Geological Map of England and Wales’ [1839]

Creator: George Bellas Greenough (1778-1855)

Description: Pattern copy of the second edition of the Geological Society’s ‘Geological Map of England and Wales’ under the authorship of its first President, George Bellas Greenough.

In the corner of each of the six sheets which make up this map are the signatures of Greenough and William Lonsdale (1794-1871), in his role as Assistant Secretary of the Society, indicating that it is one of at least two ‘standard’ or ‘pattern copies’ of the map produced in December 1839 from which all subsequent maps were to be copied. Although all copies of the second edition of the map have a publication date of 1 November 1839 it was officially issued in 1840.

The map is probably by the cartographer James Gardner who was to print and colour the map for the Society. However he suddenly announced his intention to immediately retire in January 1840 so the production was taken over by Arrowsmith.

The map continued to be produced in batches to order until the third and final edition was issued in 1865.

Date: [1839]

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Archive reference: LDGSL/979A/2

Image reference: 07-168

Recommended print size: Up to 100 x 70cm (40in x 27in)

Geological Map of England and Wales (1820) 1st edition

Title: ‘Geological Map of England and Wales’ (1820)

Creator: George Bellas Greenough (1778-1855)

Description: First edition of the Geological Society’s ‘Geological Map of England and Wales’ under the authorship of its first President, George Bellas Greenough.

The origins of the map lie in the project set out in the newly-formed Geological Society’s first publication, ‘Geological Inquiries’ (1808). The pamphlet was a call to the general public to send in information on what was known about the geology and mineralogy of Britain.

As data poured in, a map committee was formed in 1809 “for the purpose of forming maps by consolidating and arranging all such topographic information they may be able to procure relative to the extent and boundary of the different formations of which the British Isles are composed”. William Smith (1769-1839), of course, had been working on a geological map of the country but as progress had apparently stalled by this date, the most obvious solution for the Society was the preparation of its own geological map of England and Wales.

Although a rough, first draft was ready by 1812, publication was delayed due to issues with the base map. The plan had been to use Aaron Arrowsmith’s existing map, but Greenough was unhappy with its topography. The cost of having Arrowsmith re-engrave it was £900, but the total budget, raised from Members, was only £1,000. Therefore a new base map was commissioned. It took over five years to construct and was substantially more expensive, costing £1,720 to produce.

All copies of the first edition have an engraved publication date of November 1819, but the map was not issued until May 1820. Copies continued to be produced and sold until the map was superseded by the second edition (issued in 1840). This copy is no.84 and was originally intended for Dr Wollaston but it was considered ‘imperfect’ and instead retained.

Date: Issued from May 1820

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Archive reference: LDGSL/979A/1

Image reference: 07-172

Recommended print size: Up to 100 x 70cm (40in x 27in)

Utsigt af Sulitelma från Ålmajalosjegna’ (1807)

Title: ‘Utsigt af Sulitelma från Ålmajalosjegna’ [View of Sulitelma from Ålmajalosjegna]

Creator: Göran Wahlenberg (1780-1851)

Description: View showing the location of glaciers in Lapland. Taken from Wahlenberg, Göran, ‘Berättelse om mätningar och observationer för att bestämma lappska fjällens höjd och temperatur vid 67 graders polhöjd’ [Narrative of measurements and observations to decide the altitude and temperature of the Lapland Mountains at 67 degrees north], Stockholm (1808).

Date: 1807

Format: Engraving

Image reference: 09-53

Recommended print size:  Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Utsigt af Sulitelma och dess glacierer från fjället Lairo (1807)

Title: ‘Utsigt af Sulitelma och dess glacierer från fjället Lairo, ‘ [View of Sulitelma and its glaciers from Lairo]

Creator: Göran Wahlenberg (1780-1851)

Description: View showing the location of glaciers in Lapland. Taken from Wahlenberg, Göran, ‘Berättelse om mätningar och observationer för att bestämma lappska fjällens höjd och temperatur vid 67 graders polhöjd’ [Narrative of measurements and observations to decide the altitude and temperature of the Lapland Mountains at 67 degrees north], Stockholm (1808).

Date: 1807

Format: Engraving

Image reference: 09-53

Recommended print size:  Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Ustigt af Sulitelma genom Langvandalen, Lapland (1807)

Title: ‘Ustigt af Sulitelma genom Langvandalen’ [View of Sulitelma through Langvandslen]

Creator: Göran Wahlenberg (1780-1851)

Description: View showing the location of glaciers in Lapland. Taken from Wahlenberg, Göran, ‘Berättelse om mätningar och observationer för att bestämma lappska fjällens höjd och temperatur vid 67 graders polhöjd’ [Narrative of measurements and observations to decide the altitude and temperature of the Lapland Mountains at 67 degrees north], Stockholm (1808).

Date: 1807

Format: Engraving

Image reference: 09-53

Recommended print size:  Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Charta õfver en del af Lappska Fjällen (1807)

Title: ‘Charta õfver en del af Lappska Fjällen’ [Map of part of the Lapland Mountains]

Creator: Göran Wahlenberg (1780-1851)

Description:  Map of part of Lapland Mountains, showing the location of glaciers. Taken from Wahlenberg, Göran, ‘Berättelse om mätningar och observationer för att bestämma lappska fjällens höjd och temperatur vid 67 graders polhöjd’ [Narrative of measurements and observations to decide the altitude and temperature of the Lapland Mountains at 67 degrees north], Stockholm (1808).

Date: 1807
Format: Engraving
Image reference: 09-50
Recommended print size:  Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Flint tool found at the Fréville Pit at Saint-Acheul, Amiens, France

Title: Flint tool found at the Fréville Pit at Saint-Acheul, Amiens, France

Creator: Charles Pinsard (1819-1911)

Description: Close up photograph of a hand-axe, the first worked flint tool to be recorded and witnessed in situ by Joseph Prestwich (1812-1896) and John Evans (1823-1908) which became the final proof for the long suspected ‘Antiquity of Man’.

Apparent hand worked flints had long been found together with the remains of extinct animals but many geologists in the early 19th century held the widespread belief that humanity was of recent origin, specifically ‘post-diluvian’ that is deriving from after Noah’s Flood. Therefore up until 1859, there was a tendency to either ignore their co-existence or come up with other explanations as to why flint and animal remains were intermixed.

In November 1858, the geologist Hugh Falconer (1808-1865) was in France where he visited the private collection of Jacques Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868). De Perthes was a customs officer and amateur archaeologist who found in Abbeville, France, the jaw of a fossil elephant alongside a primitive axe in 1841. The French scientific community refused to accept his claims, despite his finding similar juxtapositions in other areas of the Somme Valley. Yet Falconer was convinced not only of the antiquity of the flints but also in the veracity of de Perthes’ claims. He therefore urged Prestwich to visit the sites in question.

In April 1859 Joseph Prestwich, accompanied by his close friend John Evans, travelled to France to meet with the now aged de Perthes. He showed them around his collection and took them to the various gravel pits in the area where the flint tools had been discovered. It was whilst visiting a site in Abbeville that he received a telegram stating that another flint tool had been found at Saint-Acheul, near Amiens and had been left in situ for Prestwich’s inspection. On 27 April 1859 Prestwich and Evans returned to Saint-Acheul to see it for themselves. Such was the momentous occasion, this was one of two photographs taken of the site before the flint’s removal. In his paper, presented at the Royal Society on 26 May 1859, Prestwich wrote:

“It was lying in the gravel at a depth of 17 feet from the original surface and 6 1/2 feet from the chalk. One side slightly projected. The gravel around was undisturbed, and presented its usual perpendicular face. I carefully examined the specimen, and saw no reason to doubt that it was in its natural position, for the gravel is generally so loose that a blow with a pick disturbs and brings it down for some way around…I carefully examined the ground above, and could detect no trace of any artificial disturbance. Each bed followed its natural course above the place where the flint implement was imbedded, and the lines of division of the upper brown gravel and clay, of the light-coloured sands, and of the lower gravel, were continuous and unbroken.” From John Prestwich, “On the occurrence of flint-implements: associated with the remains of animals of extinct species in beds of a late geological period, in France at Amiens and Abbeville, and in England at Hoxne”, ‘Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society’, vol 150 (1860), pp291-292.

Date: 27 April 1859

Format: Albumen photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/800a

Image reference: 06-09

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

Fréville Pit at Saint-Acheul, Amiens, France

Title: Fréville Pit at St Acheul, Amiens, France

Creator: Charles Pinsard (1819-1911)

Description: Photograph showing the quarry pit where a hand-axe, the first worked flint tool to be recorded and witnessed in situ by Joseph Prestwich (1812-1896) and John Evans (1823-1908), was found and which became the final proof for the long suspected ‘Antiquity of Man’. In the photograph, the figure on the right is pointing to the location of the flint.

Apparent hand worked flints had long been found together with the remains of extinct animals but many geologists in the early 19th century held the widespread belief that humanity was of recent origin, specifically ‘post-diluvian’ that is deriving from after Noah’s Flood. Therefore up until 1859, there was a tendency to either ignore their co-existence or come up with other explanations as to why flint and animal remains were intermixed.

In November 1858, the geologist Hugh Falconer (1808-1865) was in France where he visited the private collection of Jacques Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868). De Perthes was a customs officer and amateur archaeologist who found in Abbeville, France, the jaw of a fossil elephant alongside a primitive axe in 1841. The French scientific community refused to accept his claims, despite his finding similar juxtapositions in other areas of the Somme Valley. Yet Falconer was convinced not only of the antiquity of the flints but also in the veracity of de Perthes’ claims. He therefore urged Prestwich to visit the sites in question.

In April 1859 Joseph Prestwich, accompanied by his close friend John Evans, travelled to France to meet with the now aged de Perthes. He showed them around his collection and took them to the various gravel pits in the area where the flint tools had been discovered. It was whilst visiting a site in Abbeville that he received a telegram stating that another flint tool had been found at Saint-Acheul, near Amiens and had been left in situ for Prestwich’s inspection. On 27 April 1859 Prestwich and Evans returned to Saint-Acheul to see it for themselves. Such was the momentous occasion, this was one of two photographs taken of the site before the flint’s removal. In his paper, presented at the Royal Society on 26 May 1859, Prestwich wrote:

“It was lying in the gravel at a depth of 17 feet from the original surface and 6 1/2 feet from the chalk. One side slightly projected. The gravel around was undisturbed, and presented its usual perpendicular face. I carefully examined the specimen, and saw no reason to doubt that it was in its natural position, for the gravel is generally so loose that a blow with a pick disturbs and brings it down for some way around…I carefully examined the ground above, and could detect no trace of any artificial disturbance. Each bed followed its natural course above the place where the flint implement was imbedded, and the lines of division of the upper brown gravel and clay, of the light-coloured sands, and of the lower gravel, were continuous and unbroken.” From John Prestwich, “On the occurrence of flint-implements: associated with the remains of animals of extinct species in beds of a late geological period, in France at Amiens and Abbeville, and in England at Hoxne”, ‘Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society’, vol 150 (1860), pp291-292.

Date: 27 April 1859

Format: Albumen photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/800a

Image reference: 06-08

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

Towers of Tower Falls, Yellowstone

Title: Towers of Tower Falls, Yellowstone

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-43

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Grand Cañon, Yellowstone

Title: Grand Cañon, Yellowstone

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-42

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Head of Yellowstone River

Title: Head of Yellowstone River

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-41

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Yellowstone Lake

Title: Yellowstone Lake

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-39

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Lower Yellowstone Range

Title: Lower Yellowstone Range

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well-known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-38

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Castle Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone

Title: Castle Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-37

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Great Blue Spring of the Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone

Title: Great Blue Spring of the Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-36

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Hot springs of Gardiner’s River, Yellowstone

Title: Hot springs of Gardiner’s River, Yellowstone

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  Hayden’s initial report published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson, was instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference:09-35

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

General Outlines of the Geology of Western Australia (Gregory, 1860)

Title: General Outlines of the Geology of Western Australia (Gregory, 1860)

Creator: Francis Thomas Gregory (1821-1888)

Description: ‘General outlines of the geology of Western Australia from researches by the Messrs. Gregory during 30 years’, compiled by F T Gregory, 1860. London: John Arrowsmith (1861).

Date: 1861

Format: Lithograph on paper with hand colouring

Image reference: 07-165

Recommended print size: Up to 100 x 70cm (40in x 27in)

Map of the geology around Swan River, Western Australia

Title: Map of the geology around Swan River, Western Australia

Creator: Joshua William Gregory and Francis Thomas Gregory

Description: Manuscript map ‘Geological outlines of the country in the vicinity of the Swan River, Western Australia, compiled at the request of his Excellency John Hutt, Esq’.

Brothers Joshua William (1815-1850) and Francis Thomas Gregory (1821-1888) were two of the five sons (another being Sir August Charles Gregory) born to Joshua Gregory, an army officer from Farnfield, Nottinghamshire.  The family emigrated in 1829 after their father, who had been wounded in action, was granted land in the new Swan River Colony in Western Australia in lieu of a pension.

The Swan River Colony, on the Swan River, Western Australia, was a British settlement established in 1829.  The area was later named officially as Western Australia after its first governor, Captain James Stirling RN, belatedly received his commission.  Stirling served as governor until 1839, when he was succeeded by John Hutt.

Date: 1846

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/68

Image reference: 07-164

Recommended print size: Up to 70 x 50cm (27in x 20in)

Great Salt Lake of Utah

Title: Great Salt Lake of Utah

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-49

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Valley of Babbling Waters, Southern Utah

Title: Valley of Babbling Waters, Southern Utah

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-48

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Great Falls of Snake River, Idaho Territory

Title: Great Falls of Snake River, Idaho Territory

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-47

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Mosquito Trail, Rocky Mountains of Colorado

Title: Mosquito Trail, Rocky Mountains of Colorado, elevation 12,000 feet

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-45

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Mountain of the Holy Cross, Colorado

Title: Mountain of the Holy Cross, Colorado

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-44

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Ideal landscape of the Liassic Period

Title: Ideal landscape of the Liassic Period [Lower Jurassic]

Creator: Édouard Riou (1833–1900)

Description: Published in Figuier, L, ‘The world before the deluge’, 2nd edn. London: Chapman & Hall, (1867).

Date: 1867

Format: Lithograph

Image reference: 05-113

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Ideal scene of the Lias with Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus

Title: Ideal scene of the Lias with Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus

Creator: Édouard Riou (1833–1900)

Description: Published in Figuier, L, ‘The world before the deluge’, 2nd edn. London: Chapman & Hall, (1867).

This idealised scene of the Lower Jurassic Period shows reconstructions of two of the marine reptiles famously found by Mary Anning, an Ichthyosaur and a Plesiosaur.

Date: 1867

Format: Lithograph

Image reference: 05-111

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Ideal view of a marshy forest of the Coal Period

Title: Ideal view of a marshy forest of the Coal Period [Upper Carboniferous]

Creator: Édouard Riou (1833–1900)

Description: Published in Figuier, L, ‘The world before the deluge’, 2nd edn. London: Chapman & Hall, (1867).

Date: 1867

Format: Lithograph

Image reference: 05-112

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Ideal scene in the Lower Cretaceous Period

Title: Ideal scene in the Lower Cretaceous Period, with Iguanodon and Megalosaurus

Creator: Édouard Riou (1833–1900)

Description: Published in Figuier, L, ‘The world before the deluge’, 2nd edn. London: Chapman & Hall, (1867).

This image, depicting an idealised scene from the Lower Cretaceous Period, shows reconstructions [now sadly dated] of the first two dinosaurs identified in Britain – Megalosaurus and Iguanodon

Date: 1867

Format: Lithograph

Image reference: 05-110

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

‘Ideal section of a portion of the Earth’s Crust…’

Title: ‘Ideal section of a portion of the Earth’s Crust, intended to shew the order of deposition of the stratified rocks, with their relations to the unstratified rocks’

Creator: Selected and arranged by William Buckland, drawn and engraved by Joseph Fisher after original section by Thomas Webster

Description: Published in Buckland, W, ‘Geology and mineralogy considered with reference to natural theology’, London: William Pickering, 1836. (The Bridgewater treatises on the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested in the creation, 6).

This section is arguably one of the most influential, and reproduced, geological images of its time.  It explains the geological history of the Earth in a horizontal manner (as opposed to the modern geological timescale which is vertical).  As its base, the section uses the geochronology popularised by the German geologist Abraham Werner (1749-1817) which split the Earth’s history into four broad time periods.  These were gradually replaced as the modern geological timescale developed during the 19th century.

Date: 1836

Format: Lithograph with hand colouring

Image reference: 07-166

Recommended print size: Up to 100 x 70cm (40in x 27in)

‘Steinkholenformation’

Title: ‘Steinkholenformation’ (Coal measures formation)

Creator: Lithographed by Leopold Rottman after the original watercolour by Joseph Kuwasseg

Description: Reconstruction of plant life in the Steinkholen formation [Upper Carboniferous period], for Franz Joseph Andreas Nicholaus Unger (1800-1870).

Date: [1849]

Format: Lithograph on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/568

Image reference: 05-108

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

‘Ubergangsformation’

Title: ‘Ubergangsformation’ (Transition formation)

Creator: Lithographed by Leopold Rottman after the original watercolour by Joseph Kuwasseg

Description: Reconstruction of plant life in the Ubersgang formation [Upper Carboniferous period], for Franz Joseph Andreas Nicholaus Unger (1800-1870).

Date: [1849]

Format: Lithograph on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/568

Image reference: 05-109

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

Summit of the Sierras, Nevada

Title: Summit of the Sierras, Nevada

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-46

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Plate LVII: View of the eruption of mount Vesuvius, Monday morning August the 9th 1779…

Title: Plate LVII: View of the eruption of mount Vesuvius, Monday morning August the 9th 1779, and of the magnificent column of smoke which attended that eruption, taken from an original drawing done from nature at Pausilipo by M. Peter Fabris.

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-44

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Plate LVI: View of the great eruption of mount Vesuvius, on Sunday night August the 8th 1779

Title: Plate LVI: View of the great eruption of mount Vesuvius, on Sunday night August the 8th 1779, taken from an original drawing done by M. Peter Fabris, near his Sicilian Majesty’s palace at Pausilipo at the moment of the eruption.

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-43

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Plate LV: Views of the eruptions of Vesuvius in 1777 and 1779.

Title: Plate LV: Views of the eruptions of Vesuvius in 1777 and 1779.

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-42

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Plate XLVIII: Specimens of curious stones, found by the author on mount Vesuvius.

Title: Plate XLVIII: Specimens of curious stones, found by the author on mount Vesuvius.

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-40

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Plate XLI: View of the first discovery of the temple of Isis at Pompeii…

Title: Plate XLI: View of the first discovery of the temple of Isis at Pompeii, which city was buried by showers of pumice stones and other volcanick [sic] matter, during the great eruption of mount Vesuvius in the year 79 of the Christian aera.

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-39

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Plate XXXVIII: A night view of a current of lava that ran from mount Vesuvius towards Resina…

Title: Plate XXXVIII: A night view of a current of lava that ran from mount Vesuvius towards Resina, the 11th of May 1771, when the author had the honour of conducting their Sicilian majesties to see that curious phaenomenon.

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-38

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

XXI: View of the hot spring called, the Pisciarelli…

Title: Plate XXI: View of the hot spring called, the Pisciarelli, issuing from a part of the cone of the Solfaterra.

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-37

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Plate XII: View of an eruption of mount Vesuvius which began on the 23rd of December 1760, and ended the 5th of January 1761

Title: Plate XII: View of an eruption of mount Vesuvius which began on the 23rd of December 1760, and ended the 5th of January 1761; after a drawing taken on the spot by M. Fabris, when that eruption was in its full force.

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-36

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Plate X: Interiour [sic] view of the crater of mount Vesuvius…

Title: Plate X: Interiour [sic] view of the crater of mount Vesuvius from an original drawing taken on the spot, in the year 1756, which will serve to give an idea of the changes this part of an active volcano is subject to.

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-35

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Plate IX: Interiour [sic] view of the crater of mount Vesuvius…

Title: Plate IX: Interiour [sic] view of the crater of mount Vesuvius, as it was before the great eruption of 1767

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-34

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Plate V: View of an eruption of lava from the crater of mount Vesuvius…

Title: Plate V: ‘View of an eruption of lava from the crater of mount Vesuvius, taken from an original painting of M. Fabris, done from nature, about 22 years ago.’

Creator: Pietro Fabris (fl 1740-1792)

Description: Published in Hamilton, W, ‘Campi Phlegraei, ou, observations sur les volcans des Deux Siciles’. Nouvelle éd. edn. Paris: Chez Lamy, (1799)

The source of this plate, ‘Campi Phlegraei…’, is a first hand account of the eruptions witnessed by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy to Naples between 1764-1767.  Originally published in three volumes (1776-1779), the title took its name from the area around Naples popularly referred to as ‘Campi Phlegraei’ or ‘flaming fields’, owing to the frequent and violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.

Date: 1799

Format: Hand coloured etching

Image reference: 02-33

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Tower Falls and Sulphur Mountain, Yellowstone

Title: Tower Falls and Sulphur Mountain, Yellowstone

Creator: Louis Prang and Company after original watercolour by Thomas Moran

Description: Published in F V Hayden, ‘The Yelllowstone National Park, and the mountain regions of portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah’, Boston: Louis Prang and Company (1876).

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA, was declared the world’s first national park in 1872.  Although well known to tribes and trackers for centuries, it only came to national prominence following the more formal scientific surveys conducted from the 1860s onwards.  The most famous was that led by Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden (1829-1887), head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories in 1871.  Included in Hayden’s scientific team were the artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942).  The initial report, published in the autumn of 1871, alongside the stunning scenery captured by Moran and Jackson were instrumental to the US Congress’ decision to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

Date: 1876

Format: Chromolithograph

Image reference: 09-40

Original size: c.36 x c.25cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Head of a dodo

Title:  Head of a dodo

Creator: G de Bievre after Prêtre

Description: Coloured lithograph of the head of a dodo, taken from Henri de Blainville’s paper “Mémoire sur Le Dodo, autrement Dronte (Didus ineptus L)” published in ‘Nouvelles Annales du Muséum D’Histoire Naturelle’, vol 4 (1835).

Date: 1835

Format: Hand coloured lithograph

Image reference: 3-26

Original size: 29.5cm x 24cm

Recommend print size: Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Cephalaspis Lyelli Agassiz

Cephalaspis Lyelli Agassiz

Title: Watercolour of Cephalaspis Lyelli Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Watercolour of the fossil fish Cephalaspis Lyelli Agassiz, from Charles Lyell’s collection, by Joseph Dinkel, London, [1834-1836]. Found in Glamis, Forfarshire, Scotland.

Published in Agassiz, J L R. ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), Vol 2, Tab 1a, fig 2. Livraison issued 1837.

The original specimen now held by the Natural History Museum, ref: OR 20087, see: Woodward, A S. ‘Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum…’ (1899-1901), vol 2, p180; see also White, E. “On Cephalaspis lyelli”, ‘Palaeontology’, vol 1 (1958), pp 99-105.

Date: [1834-1836]

Format: Watercolour

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/2/10/2

Image reference: 16-20

Original size: 35.6cm x 20.7cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Lepidotus minor

 

Title: Watercolour of Lepidotus minor

Creator: E G Müller [fl.1838]

Description: Watercolour, with scale structure details, of the fossil fish Lepidotus minor, by E G Müller, 1838. Found in Oolite, Purbeck. Marked ‘Stuchbury’, presumably referring to Samuel Stutchbury, curator of the Bristol Philosophical Institution. Not published.

Date: 1838

Format: Watercolour

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/2/86/1

Image reference: 16-19

Original size: 51.1cm x 30.5cm

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Palaeorhynchum latum Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolour of Palaeorhynchum latum Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Watercolour of a complete specimen of the fossil fish Palaeorhynchum latum Agassiz, by Joseph Dinkel, [1834-1842]. Found in the Schist, Glarus, from the collection of William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen.

Published as Agassiz, J L R. ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), Vol 5, Tab 32, fig 2. Livraison issued 1842.

Date: [1834-1842]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/616/2/40

Image reference: 16-18

Original size: 74.7cm x 29cm

Recommended print size: Up to 70 x 50cm (27in x 20in)

Acrolepis asper Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolour of Acrolepis asper Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Large, fold out, watercolour study, with scale details, of an almost complete specimen of the fossil fish Acrolepis asper Agassiz, by Joseph Dinkel, [1834-1844]. Found in Kupfer Scheifer, Mansfeld, from the collection of William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen.

Note: drawing references Agassiz, J L R, ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843), vol 2, part 2, p81, but was not published however the specimen is described in the text.

Date: [1834-1844]

Format: Watercolour on paper.

Archive reference: LDGSL/616/2/19/1

Image reference: 16-17

Original size: 76.3cm x 35.4cm

Recommended print size: Up to 100 x 70cm (40in x 27in)

 

Platax macropterygius Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolour of Platax macropterygius Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Large watercolour drawing of the fossil fish Platax macropterygius Agassiz, by Joseph Dinkel, [?1832-1834]. Found in Monte Bolca, from the Museum of Natural History Paris.

Published as: Agassiz, J L R. ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), Vol 4, Tab 41a. Livraison published 1839.

Date: [?1832-1834]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/5/61

Image reference: 16-16

Original size: 48.7cm x 61.2cm

Recommended print size: Up to 70 x 50cm (27in x 20in)

 

Beryx ornatus Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolours of Beryx ornatus Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Two watercolour drawings of the fossil fish Beryx ornatus Agassiz, with scale detail, by Joseph Dinkel, [1834-1836]. Found in the white chalk, Lewes, from the collection of Gideon Mantell. The annotations below each drawing are by Louis Agassiz.

Published in Agassiz, J L R. ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), Vol 4, Tab 14a-b. Livraison issued 1837.

Date: [1834-1836]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/5/25/1-2

Image reference: 16-15

Original size: 48.3cm x 61.4cm

Recommended print size: Up to 70 x 50cm (27in x 20in)

 

Holocentrum Leo; Apogon Rex multorum; Myrlpristis Jacobus

 

Title: Skeletons of Holocentrum Leo; Apogon Rex multorum; Myrlpristis Jacobus

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Monochrome ink and wash drawing of the skeleton of the fossil fish Holocentrum Leo, with studies of the skulls of Apogon Rex multorum and Myrlpristis Jacobus, by Joseph Dinkel, [1832-1833]. From the Jardin des Plantes [Museum of Natural History], Paris. Annotated “Original du Tab B du 4e Vol: d’apres des squelettes du Jardin des Plantes [Museum of Natural History], L R Agassiz, 1841”.

Published in Agassiz, J L R. ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), Vol 4, Tab B, livraison issued 1834.

From the name of the species, the style of drawing and label, this drawing may be among the earliest batches of specimens to be drawn. The French naturalist Georges Cuvier had originally planned a work on fossil fish but had been so impressed by the work of Louis Agassiz’s artists that he turned his work over to Agassiz for him to continue.

Date: [1832-1833], paper watermarked 1831.

Format: Ink and wash on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/5/2

Image reference: 16-14

Original size: 37.5cm x 22.8cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

 

Callipteryx reticaudus Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolours of Callipteryx reticaudus Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Watercolours of the part and counterpart of the fossil fish Callipteryx reticaudus Agassiz, by Joseph Dinkel, 1833.  Found in Monte Bolca, from the collection of the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Upper image published as: Agassiz, J L R. ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), Vol 4, Tab 33, fig 2. Livraison published 1839.

The annotation on the sheet is by Louis Agassiz, dated 1841.

Date: 1833

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/5/43/1-2

Image reference: 16-13

Original size: 61cm x 48.5cm

Recommended print size: Up to 70 x 50cm (27in x 20in)

 

Palaeoniscus striolatus Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolour of Palaeoniscus striolatus Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Fisher [fl.1834-1837]

Description: Watercolour and pencil drawing of the fossil fish Palaeoniscus striolatus Agassiz, drawn natural size by Joseph Fisher, Oxford, 1837. Found in black ferruginous shale from the coal formation of Dudley, 1837, lent to Dr [William] Buckland by Mr Blyton of Dudley. Unpublished.

Date: 1837

Format: Watercolour on paper.

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/2/26/2

Image reference: 16-11

Original size: 23.1cm x 13.1cm

Recommended print size: Up to 10 x 8 inches (25 x 14cm)

Amblypterus striatus Agassiz and Amblypterus nemopterus Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolours of Amblypterus striatus Agassiz and Amblypterus nemopterus Agassiz

Creator: Theodor Hellmuth [fl. 1830-1850]

Description: Watercolours of specimens and scale structure details of the fossil fish Amblypterus striatus Agassiz and Amblypterus nemopterus Agassiz (from Newhaven), by Theodor Hellmuth, Neuchatel, 1835.

According to Agassiz’s published text, the specimen was from the collection of Charles Murray Cathcart, Lord Greenock.  Amblypterus nemopterus Agassiz specimen now held by the Natural History Museum, ref: OR 50002, see: Woodward, A S. ‘Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum…’ (1899-1901), vol 2, p497.

Published in Agassiz, J L R. ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), Vol 2, Tab 4b, fig 1, 2, 5. Livraison issued 1836.

Date: 1835

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/2/18/2

Image reference: 16-10

Original size: 33.8cm x 19.5cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Pachycormus latirostris Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolour of Pachycormus latirostris Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Large watercolour study of an incomplete specimen [missing tail section] of the fossil fish Pachycormus latirostris Agassiz, by Joseph Dinkel, [1834-1844]. Found in the Lias, Whitby, from the collection of William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen.

Note: drawing references Agassiz, J L R, ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843), vol 2, part 2, p114, but was not published.

Date: [1834-1844]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/616/2/26/1

Image reference: 16-09

Original size: 50.2cm x 36.5cm

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Eugnathus chirotes Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolour of Eugnathus chirotes Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Large, fold out, watercolour study of an incomplete specimen of the fossil fish Eugnathus chirotes Agassiz [annotated later ‘Conodus ferox’], by Joseph Dinkel, [1834-1842]. Found in the Lias, Lyme Regis, from the collection of William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen.

Part of the drawing published in: Agassiz, J L R, ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), vol 2,Tab 57b. Livraison issued 1842.

Date: [1834-1842]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/616/2/28/1

Image reference: 16-08

Original size: 86.1cm x 45.1cm

Recommend print size: Up to 100 x 70cm (40in x 27in)

Polypterus bichir

 

Title: Studies of Polypterus bichir

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description:  Lateral and dorsal views of the fossil fish Polypterus bichir, with a study of the skeleton, by Joseph Dinkel, Paris 1833.

Published in Agassiz, J L R. ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), Vol 2, Tab C. Livraison issued 1833.

Date: 1833

Format: Ink and wash on paper.

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/2/2

Image reference: 16-07

Original size: c.50cm x 60cm

Recommended print size: Up to 70 x 50cm

“The Val Giuf…” 

 

Title: Photograph, “The Val Giuf…”

Creator: Frederick Noel Ashcroft (1878-1949)

Description:  Photograph, captioned “36. The Val Giuf from a point on the south-eastern slopes of Cuolm Val above the alp-huts of Milez.”

Friedrich Noel Ashcroft Fleischmann was born in Wavetree, Liverpool on 28 August 1878.

Between 1901-1914, Fleischmann specialised in collecting zeolites mainly from Europe and America.  The collection, when it was presented to the British Museum in 1914, consisted of around 2,000 specimens from 80 different localities.

After the end of the First World War, Frederick Noel Ashcroft (he anglicised his name in November 1914) began undertaking yearly visits to Switzerland, making the acquaintance of leading and local mineralogists many of whom were expert Alpine guides and from whom he would purchase specimens.  He made it a condition, however, that he should be not only able to ascertain the exact locality of every specimen but also preferably inspect the area himself.  Ashcroft’s principal collecting areas were centred around Disentis and Sedrun in the Vorder Rhein Valley and about Andermatt and Amsteg. From the latter two places he could also reach the mineral localities of the Reuss Valley, St Gotthard, Urseren Thal, Göschenen Thal and Maderaner Thal.   Two of his most useful local mineral contacts were Adolf Caveng, the postmaster at Sedrun, and his son Ambrosi to whom he would send maps onto which they would mark the localities of interesting finds.  In the following summer Ashcroft could then visit the localities himself and photograph the sites with his half-plate stand camera.  Prints from photographs were used to pin-point the finds more precisely and to record any further finds that were made.

Ashcroft’s Swiss mineral collection of over 6000 specimens was donated to the British Museum between 1921-1938, along with the photographs connected to their collection.  Although he did not write any papers on his Swiss collection, he collaborated in the two volume work ‘Die Mineralien der Schweizeralpen’ (1940) by Niggli, P, et al, and in which a number of his photographs appear.

The image is taken from two albums containing 73 black and white photographs of the Swiss Alps, taken by Ashcroft probably during his mineral collecting in the region between 1921-1938.   The captions are quoted as written by Ashcroft.

Date: [1921-1938]

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1022/36

Image reference: 05-107

Original size: c.38cm x 29cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

“Culmatsch and Piz Ner from near St. Anton Surrhein” 

 

Title: Photograph, “Culmatsch and Piz Ner from near St. Anton Surrhein”

Creator: Frederick Noel Ashcroft (1878-1949)

Description:  Photograph, captioned “34. Culmatsch and Piz Ner from near St Anton Surrhein.”

Friedrich Noel Ashcroft Fleischmann was born in Wavetree, Liverpool on 28 August 1878.

Between 1901-1914, Fleischmann specialised in collecting zeolites mainly from Europe and America.  The collection, when it was presented to the British Museum in 1914, consisted of around 2,000 specimens from 80 different localities.

After the end of the First World War, Frederick Noel Ashcroft (he anglicised his name in November 1914) began undertaking yearly visits to Switzerland, making the acquaintance of leading and local mineralogists many of whom were expert Alpine guides and from whom he would purchase specimens.  He made it a condition, however, that he should be not only able to ascertain the exact locality of every specimen but also preferably inspect the area himself.  Ashcroft’s principal collecting areas were centred around Disentis and Sedrun in the Vorder Rhein Valley and about Andermatt and Amsteg. From the latter two places he could also reach the mineral localities of the Reuss Valley, St Gotthard, Urseren Thal, Göschenen Thal and Maderaner Thal.   Two of his most useful local mineral contacts were Adolf Caveng, the postmaster at Sedrun, and his son Ambrosi to whom he would send maps onto which they would mark the localities of interesting finds.  In the following summer Ashcroft could then visit the localities himself and photograph the sites with his half-plate stand camera.  Prints from photographs were used to pin-point the finds more precisely and to record any further finds that were made.

Ashcroft’s Swiss mineral collection of over 6000 specimens was donated to the British Museum between 1921-1938, along with the photographs connected to their collection.  Although he did not write any papers on his Swiss collection, he collaborated in the two volume work ‘Die Mineralien der Schweizeralpen’ (1940) by Niggli, P, et al, and in which a number of his photographs appear.

The image is taken from two albums containing 73 black and white photographs of the Swiss Alps, taken by Ashcroft probably during his mineral collecting in the region between 1921-1938.   The captions are quoted as written by Ashcroft.

Date: [1921-1938]

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1022/34

Image reference: 05-106

Original size: c.38cm x 29cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

“The Tobel Drun and the villages of Ruèras, Zarcuns, Camischolas and Sedrun…” 

 

Title: Photograph, “The Tobel Drun and the villages of Ruèras, Zarcuns, Camischolas and Sedrun…”

Creator: Frederick Noel Ashcroft (1878-1949)

Description:  Photograph, captioned “30. The Tobel Drun and the villages of Ruèras, Zarcuns, Camischolas and Sedrun from a point on the Oberalp road between Ruèras and the chapel of S. Brida (St. Brigitta).”

Friedrich Noel Ashcroft Fleischmann was born in Wavetree, Liverpool on 28 August 1878.

Between 1901-1914, Fleischmann specialised in collecting zeolites mainly from Europe and America.  The collection, when it was presented to the British Museum in 1914, consisted of around 2,000 specimens from 80 different localities.

After the end of the First World War, Frederick Noel Ashcroft (he anglicised his name in November 1914) began undertaking yearly visits to Switzerland, making the acquaintance of leading and local mineralogists many of whom were expert Alpine guides and from whom he would purchase specimens.  He made it a condition, however, that he should be not only able to ascertain the exact locality of every specimen but also preferably inspect the area himself.  Ashcroft’s principal collecting areas were centred around Disentis and Sedrun in the Vorder Rhein Valley and about Andermatt and Amsteg. From the latter two places he could also reach the mineral localities of the Reuss Valley, St Gotthard, Urseren Thal, Göschenen Thal and Maderaner Thal.   Two of his most useful local mineral contacts were Adolf Caveng, the postmaster at Sedrun, and his son Ambrosi to whom he would send maps onto which they would mark the localities of interesting finds.  In the following summer Ashcroft could then visit the localities himself and photograph the sites with his half-plate stand camera.  Prints from photographs were used to pin-point the finds more precisely and to record any further finds that were made.

Ashcroft’s Swiss mineral collection of over 6000 specimens was donated to the British Museum between 1921-1938, along with the photographs connected to their collection.  Although he did not write any papers on his Swiss collection, he collaborated in the two volume work ‘Die Mineralien der Schweizeralpen’ (1940) by Niggli, P, et al, and in which a number of his photographs appear.

The image is taken from two albums containing 73 black and white photographs of the Swiss Alps, taken by Ashcroft probably during his mineral collecting in the region between 1921-1938.   The captions are quoted as written by Ashcroft.

Date: [1921-1938]

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1022/30

Image reference: 05-105

Original size: c.38cm x 29cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

“The Rhone Gletscher…”

 

Title: Photograph, “The Rhone Gletscher…”

Creator: Frederick Noel Ashcroft (1878-1949)

Description:  Photograph, captioned “7. The Rhone Gletscher from a point about midway between Gletsch and the snout of that Glacier.”

Friedrich Noel Ashcroft Fleischmann was born in Wavetree, Liverpool on 28 August 1878.

Between 1901-1914, Fleischmann specialised in collecting zeolites mainly from Europe and America.  The collection, when it was presented to the British Museum in 1914, consisted of around 2,000 specimens from 80 different localities.

After the end of the First World War, Frederick Noel Ashcroft (he anglicised his name in November 1914) began undertaking yearly visits to Switzerland, making the acquaintance of leading and local mineralogists many of whom were expert Alpine guides and from whom he would purchase specimens.  He made it a condition, however, that he should be not only able to ascertain the exact locality of every specimen but also preferably inspect the area himself.  Ashcroft’s principal collecting areas were centred around Disentis and Sedrun in the Vorder Rhein Valley and about Andermatt and Amsteg. From the latter two places he could also reach the mineral localities of the Reuss Valley, St Gotthard, Urseren Thal, Göschenen Thal and Maderaner Thal.   Two of his most useful local mineral contacts were Adolf Caveng, the postmaster at Sedrun, and his son Ambrosi to whom he would send maps onto which they would mark the localities of interesting finds.  In the following summer Ashcroft could then visit the localities himself and photograph the sites with his half-plate stand camera.  Prints from photographs were used to pin-point the finds more precisely and to record any further finds that were made.

Ashcroft’s Swiss mineral collection of over 6000 specimens was donated to the British Museum between 1921-1938, along with the photographs connected to their collection.  Although he did not write any papers on his Swiss collection, he collaborated in the two volume work ‘Die Mineralien der Schweizeralpen’ (1940) by Niggli, P, et al, and in which a number of his photographs appear.

The image is taken from two albums containing 73 black and white photographs of the Swiss Alps, taken by Ashcroft probably during his mineral collecting in the region between 1921-1938.   The captions are quoted as written by Ashcroft.

Date: [1921-1938]

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1022/7

Image reference: 05-103

Original size: c.38cm x 29cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

“The Grimsel Hospiz on the Nollen…”

 

Title: Photograph, “The Grimsel Hospiz on the Nollen…”

Creator: Frederick Noel Ashcroft (1878-1949)

Description:  Black and white photograph, captioned “1. The Grimsel Hospiz on the Nollen, the Seewissegg dam (left) and the Spitallamm dam (centre) from the Grimsel road. The Finsteraarhorn in the distance.”

Friedrich Noel Ashcroft Fleischmann was born in Wavetree, Liverpool on 28 August 1878.

Between 1901-1914, Fleischmann specialised in collecting zeolites mainly from Europe and America.  The collection, when it was presented to the British Museum in 1914, consisted of around 2,000 specimens from 80 different localities.

After the end of the First World War, Frederick Noel Ashcroft (he anglicised his name in November 1914) began undertaking yearly visits to Switzerland, making the acquaintance of leading and local mineralogists many of whom were expert Alpine guides and from whom he would purchase specimens.  He made it a condition, however, that he should be not only able to ascertain the exact locality of every specimen but also preferably inspect the area himself.  Ashcroft’s principal collecting areas were centred around Disentis and Sedrun in the Vorder Rhein Valley and about Andermatt and Amsteg. From the latter two places he could also reach the mineral localities of the Reuss Valley, St Gotthard, Urseren Thal, Göschenen Thal and Maderaner Thal.   Two of his most useful local mineral contacts were Adolf Caveng, the postmaster at Sedrun, and his son Ambrosi to whom he would send maps onto which they would mark the localities of interesting finds.  In the following summer Ashcroft could then visit the localities himself and photograph the sites with his half-plate stand camera.  Prints from photographs were used to pin-point the finds more precisely and to record any further finds that were made.

Ashcroft’s Swiss mineral collection of over 6000 specimens was donated to the British Museum between 1921-1938, along with the photographs connected to their collection.  Although he did not write any papers on his Swiss collection, he collaborated in the two volume work ‘Die Mineralien der Schweizeralpen’ (1940) by Niggli, P, et al, and in which a number of his photographs appear.

The image is taken from two albums containing 73 black and white photographs of the Swiss Alps, taken by Ashcroft probably during his mineral collecting in the region between 1921-1938.   The captions are quoted as written by Ashcroft.

Date: [1921-1938]

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1022/1

Image reference: 05-101

Original size: 38.1cm x 29.6cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

“A view…to the east of the Todtensee near the summit of the Grimsel Pass”

 

Title: Photograph, “A view…to the east of the Todtensee near the summit of the Grimsel Pass”   

Creator: Frederick Noel Ashcroft (1878-1949)

Description:  Photograph captioned “3. A view looking southward from a point a little to the east of the Todtensee near the summit of the Grimsel Pass.”  Ashcroft notes in the caption: ‘I do not know the names of the peaks for certain’.

Friedrich Noel Ashcroft Fleischmann was born in Wavetree, Liverpool on 28 August 1878.

Between 1901-1914, Fleischmann specialised in collecting zeolites mainly from Europe and America.  The collection, when it was presented to the British Museum in 1914, consisted of around 2,000 specimens from 80 different localities.

After the end of the First World War, Frederick Noel Ashcroft (he anglicised his name in November 1914) began undertaking yearly visits to Switzerland, making the acquaintance of leading and local mineralogists many of whom were expert Alpine guides and from whom he would purchase specimens.  He made it a condition, however, that he should be not only able to ascertain the exact locality of every specimen but also preferably inspect the area himself.  Ashcroft’s principal collecting areas were centred around Disentis and Sedrun in the Vorder Rhein Valley and about Andermatt and Amsteg. From the latter two places he could also reach the mineral localities of the Reuss Valley, St Gotthard, Urseren Thal, Göschenen Thal and Maderaner Thal.   Two of his most useful local mineral contacts were Adolf Caveng, the postmaster at Sedrun, and his son Ambrosi to whom he would send maps onto which they would mark the localities of interesting finds.  In the following summer Ashcroft could then visit the localities himself and photograph the sites with his half-plate stand camera.  Prints from photographs were used to pin-point the finds more precisely and to record any further finds that were made.

Ashcroft’s Swiss mineral collection of over 6000 specimens was donated to the British Museum between 1921-1938, along with the photographs connected to their collection.  Although he did not write any papers on his Swiss collection, he collaborated in the two volume work ‘Die Mineralien der Schweizeralpen’ (1940) by Niggli, P, et al, and in which a number of his photographs appear.

The image is taken from two albums containing 73 black and white photographs of the Swiss Alps, taken by Ashcroft probably during his mineral collecting in the region between 1921-1938.   The captions are quoted as written by Ashcroft.

Date: [1921-1938]

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1022/3

Image reference: 05-102

Original size: c.38cm x 29cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Fossil fish from the collection of William Willoughby Cole

 

Title: Fossil fish from the collection of William Willoughby Cole

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Watercolour painting of a montage of 18 fossil fish specimens probably from the collection of William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, by Joseph Dinkel, [1834-1860s].

The drawing belongs to a series that has its origins as the artwork commissioned by Louis Agassiz as part of the research for his Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles and Monographie des Poissons Fossiles du Vieux Grès Rouge.

Sir Phillip de Malpas Grey Egerton (1806-1881) and William Willoughby Cole (1807-1886), 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, were lifelong friends and palaeontologists, and each man had his own respective fossil fish cabinet. A large number of their specimens were included in Agassiz’s works, but in order to help him defray the costs of such an expensive undertaking, the artists’ time were paid for by the men on the understanding that the drawings would become their property once the images were copied onto lithographic stones.

After Agassiz’s departure for the USA in 1846, Egerton continued to commission Joseph Dinkel to draw specimens from both men’s fossil cabinets (although there are a few images from other collections) to illustrate later scientific papers, principally Egerton’s ‘Palichthyologic Notes’ series which was published in the Society’s ‘Quarterly Journal’ between 1848-1857 and intended as an addenda to Agassiz’s fish works, and his similarly themed fossil fish descriptions in the ‘Memoirs of the Geological Survey…illustrative of British Organic Remains’, from 1852-1872.

Both men’s sets of drawings were presented to the Geological Society in 1876 and 1881.

Date: [1834-1860s]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/616/2/5

Image reference: 16-21

Original size: 40cm x 27cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

“The Schienstock and Bächistock…”

 

Title: Photograph, “The Schienstock and Bächistock…”

Creator: Frederick Noel Ashcroft (1878-1949)

Description:  Photograph, captioned “11. The Schienstock and Bächistock from a point on the slopes between the Lautersee and the cliffs of the Schneehühnerstock.”

Friedrich Noel Ashcroft Fleischmann was born in Wavetree, Liverpool on 28 August 1878.

Between 1901-1914, Fleischmann specialised in collecting zeolites mainly from Europe and America.  The collection, when it was presented to the British Museum in 1914, consisted of around 2,000 specimens from 80 different localities.

After the end of the First World War, Frederick Noel Ashcroft (he anglicised his name in November 1914) began undertaking yearly visits to Switzerland, making the acquaintance of leading and local mineralogists many of whom were expert Alpine guides and from whom he would purchase specimens.  He made it a condition, however, that he should be not only able to ascertain the exact locality of every specimen but also preferably inspect the area himself.  Ashcroft’s principal collecting areas were centred around Disentis and Sedrun in the Vorder Rhein Valley and about Andermatt and Amsteg. From the latter two places he could also reach the mineral localities of the Reuss Valley, St Gotthard, Urseren Thal, Göschenen Thal and Maderaner Thal.   Two of his most useful local mineral contacts were Adolf Caveng, the postmaster at Sedrun, and his son Ambrosi to whom he would send maps onto which they would mark the localities of interesting finds.  In the following summer Ashcroft could then visit the localities himself and photograph the sites with his half-plate stand camera.  Prints from photographs were used to pin-point the finds more precisely and to record any further finds that were made.

Ashcroft’s Swiss mineral collection of over 6000 specimens was donated to the British Museum between 1921-1938, along with the photographs connected to their collection.  Although he did not write any papers on his Swiss collection, he collaborated in the two volume work ‘Die Mineralien der Schweizeralpen’ (1940) by Niggli, P, et al, and in which a number of his photographs appear.

The image is taken from two albums containing 73 black and white photographs of the Swiss Alps, taken by Ashcroft probably during his mineral collecting in the region between 1921-1938.   The captions are quoted as written by Ashcroft.

Date: [1921-1938]

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1022/11

Image reference: 05-104

Original size: c.38cm x 29cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Tetragonolepis Magneville Agassiz

 

Title: Watercolour of Tetragonolepis Magneville Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Watercolour of the fossil fish Tetragonolepis Magneville Agassiz. Found in the lower Oolite, in the environs of Caen, from the Museum of Caen.

Published in Agassiz, J L R. ‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles’ (1833-1843/1844), Vol 2, Tab 24. Livraison issued 1835.

Date: [1832-1833]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/2/59/1

Image reference: 16-05

Original size: 38cm x 26cm

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

Lepidotus gigas Agassiz

 

Title:  Watercolour of Lepidotus gigas Agassiz

Creator: Joseph Dinkel [1806-1891]

Description: Large watercolour of the fossil fish Lepidotus minor Agassiz, by Joseph Dinkel, 1833. Exhibited at the ‘Expose Paris 1834’. Not published.

Date: 1833

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/613/2/67/1

Image reference: 16-12

Original size: 83.1cm x 61.2cm

Recommended print size: Up to 100 x 70cm (40in x 27in)

 

Plate VII [St George’s Channel]

 

Title: Plate VII [St George’s Channel] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-07

Plate VI [German Ocean]

 

Title: Plate VI [German Ocean] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-06

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate V [Yorkshire]

Title: Plate V [Yorkshire] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’.

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-05

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate XV [France]

 

Title: Plate XV [France] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-15

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate XIV [English Channel]

 

Title: Plate XIV [English Channel] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-14

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate XIII [Cornwall]

 

Title: Plate XIII [Cornwall] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-13

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate XII [Kent]

 

Title: Plate XII [Kent] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-12

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate X [Isle of Wight]

 

Title: Plate XI [Isle of Wight] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-11

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate X [Bristol Channel]

 

Title: Plate X [Bristol Channel] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-10

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate IX [East Anglia]

 

Title: Plate IX [East Anglia] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-09

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate VIII [Welsh border]

 

Title: Plate VIII [Welsh border] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-08

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate III [Title page]

 

Title: Plate III [Title page] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’.

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Confusingly, the title sheet is from a later edition – hence the slight colour difference in the paper. It is from a copy of the map which was purchased by the Society in 1931 for the express purpose of hanging on the wall. As the title sheet was slightly damaged it was swapped with the sheet from the first imprint. This later map, which is watermarked 1836, is now hanging in the Society’s hallway.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [1836]

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-03

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate IV [Irish Sea]

 

Title: Plate IV [Irish Sea] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-04

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales…’ (Smith, 1815)

Title: ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 176cm x 259cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

The Geological Society Library would like to express its thanks to the following donors whose generosity paid for the conservation and digitisation of this Map:

Dr Peter Dolan
Nineteenth Century Geological Maps
Petroc Limited
Dr Dave Williams

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-16

Size of original: 176cm x  259cm

Plate II [Firth of Forth]

 

Title: Plate II [Firth of Forth] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-02

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Plate I [Firth of Clyde]

 

Title: Plate I [Firth of Clyde] of ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

Creator: William Smith (1769-1839)

Description: This map, by William Smith, is acknowledged as the first geological map of a country ever produced. Although there were ‘geological’ maps in existence before this, these invariably only identified rocks by types and are therefore more accurately described as ‘mineralogical’ maps. Smith’s innovation was to attempt to classify rocks according to age and manner of deposition – that is stratigraphically.

Smith’s distinctive ‘fading’ watercolour technique picked out the outcrops of each strata, the darker tones being the oldest rocks and fading as they become younger. The hues were chosen by Smith as being the closest representation to each specific rock type (although obviously brighter), but chalk was marked in green as otherwise much of the map would have been white.

The Map was, like his other publications, to be of utility to industry, agriculture and the arts, as Smith explained in the accompanying Memoir:
“…the most proper soil will be known for plantations of timber; miners and colliers, in searching for metals and coal; builders for freestone, limestone, and brick-earth; the inhabitants of dry countries for water; the farmer, for fossil manures; will all be directed to proper situations, in search of the various articles they require; and will be prevented from expensive trials, where there can be no prospect of success.”

Produced at a scale of 5 miles to the inch, the Map measured (when joined) 259cm x 176cm and could be purchased in a variety of formats. This copy, made of 15 individual sheets, is the first imprint. It is one from the first batch of 20 or so unsigned copies and is likely to be the Geological Society’s subscription copy. It was believed lost for many decades but was rediscovered during an archival audit in 2014. Ironically its ‘disappearance’ has meant that the colours are extremely fresh and the cotton rag paper was in relatively good condition.

Publisher: John Cary

Date: [September] 1815

Format: Watercolour on engraved base

Image reference: 22-01

Size of original sheet: 65 x 55cm

Hanging Stone, Charnwood

Title: The Hanging Stone, Charnwood Lodge. Volcanic Agglomerate

Creator: William Whitehead Watts

Description: This formation is now known as Oaks Pinnacle. It is found in the Charnwood Forest area of Leicestershire near Charnwood Lodge, which used to be a private estate and is now owned by Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

This is one of a number of lantern slides (there are 412 in total) found in a damp and dirty ‘potting shed’ presumably in the late 1990s and subsequently donated to the Geological Society in 2001.

Date: [1896]

Format: Black and white photographic lantern slide

Archive reference: LDGSL/1088/WW/2

Image reference: 02-15

Recommended print size: Up to 10 x 8 inches (25 x 14cm)

L’ile Julia (Julia’s Isle)

Title: ‘L’Ile Julia le 29 Septembre 1831′ [Julia’s Isle on 29 September 1831]

Creator: Print after Edmond Joinville (1801-1849)

Description: Julia’s Isle was a submerged volcanic island which, when it temporarily appeared in July 1831 off the coast of Sicily, caused an international dispute over which country had sovereignty, as well as confusion as to its naming. In August 1831, Humphrey Fleming Senhouse, a British naval captain, claimed it for Britain and named it ‘Graham’s Island’ after Sir James Graham, first lord of the Admiralty. However when the French geologist Louis-Constant Prévost described the formation for the Société Géologique de France, he named it ‘Julia’s Isle’ after its July appearance – and it was under this name France tried to claim territorial ownership. King Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies, sent ships to ‘Ferdinandea’ to claim it for the Bourbon crown.

Charles Lyell initially preferred the name ‘Sciacca’ but other names put forward were Nerita, Hotham and Corrao. The island was only visible for a few months, and by December of 1831 it had disappeared – the diplomatic wrangle still unresolved.

This image is from the belated visit made by Louis Constant Prevost who landed on the island on 29 September 1831.  It shows the tricolour of France being planted despite the island gradually disintegrating into the rough seas.

The loose print was given to the Society by Constant Prevost himself (see his signature on the top right), but was also published in: Prevost, M C “Notes sur l’ile Julia pour servir a l’histoire de la formation des montagnes volcaniques”, ‘Memoires de la Societe Geologique de France’, T2, Mem 5 (1835), pp91-124.

Date: 1832

Format: Lithograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/522

Image reference: 02-32

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

John MacCulloch (1773-1835)

Title: Portrait of John MacCulloch

Creator: C E Wagstaff, after painting by B R Faulkner

Description: Engraved portrait of John MacCulloch. Elected a Member of the Geological Society on 5 February 1808 (no.67) and served as President between 1816-1818.

John MacCulloch was a Guernsey born chemist, surgeon, physician and geologist, who gave the first account of the extinct volcanoes of Scotland, and prepared one of the first geological maps of Scotland, published in 1836.

Geological mapping of Scotland is more difficult than England not only because the geology is more complex but also because many of the locations are difficult to get to. It took MacCulloch 16 years to complete this map and as he was the first government sponsored geological surveyor in Britain, there were a number of complaints about the use of public money for his annual summer field trips.

Unfortunately the map was published posthumously. MacCulloch died in 1835, following a fall from his carriage whilst on honeymoon in Cornwall.

Date: 1837

Format: Engraved portrait

Archive reference: GSL/POR/53/4

Image reference: 01-10

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

Geological map of Northumberland (Fry, c.1814)

Title: Geological map of Northumberland

Creator: Probably Joseph Harrison Fry (1777-1855)

Description: Geological colouring of the strata of Northumberland, on a base map by John Cary, 1793.

In the Memoir to George Bellas Greenough’s ‘Geological Map of England & Wales’ (1820) he thanks Joseph H Fryer of Lysick Hall, Cumberland, who had sent him three maps of Cumberland, Westmorland and Durham ‘coloured according to the boundaries of their respective strata’ in 1814. Although this map is technically not cited, it is very similar to another which is.

Date: Base map 1793, geological colouring c.1814.

Format: Watercolour on printed base.

Archive reference: LDGSL/947/6/D/1/1

Image reference: 07-156

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

‘A New Map of Durham divided into Wards…’ (Smith, 1831)

Title: ‘A New Map of Durham divided into Wards…’

Creator: John Cary (1755-1835) [and William Smith (1769-1839)]

Description: ‘A New Map of Durham divided into Wards, exhibiting its Roads, Rivers, Parks, &c’, published by John Cary, London, 1831. Although not acknowledged on the map, the geological colouring is by William Smith. Scale-1:c.152,000. Pencil annotations by George Bellas Greenough, from whose collection the map derives. Dissected on cloth, 47cm x 53cm. In slip case.

Publisher’s title on slip case ‘Geological map of Durham: on which are delineated by colours, the courses and width of the strata which occasion the varieties of soils; calculated to elucidate the agriculture of the county, to show the situation of the best materials for building, making roads, constructing canals, &c and pointing out those places where coal and other valuable minerals are likely to be found.’

Date: 1831

Format: Hand colouring on engraved base map

Archive reference: LDGSL/947/6/D/7/1

Image reference: 07-134

Recommended print size: Up to 70 x 50cm

‘A New Map of Northumberland divided into Wards…’ (Smith, 1831)

 

 

Title: ‘A New Map of Northumberland divided into Wards…’

Creator: John Cary (1755-1835) [and William Smith (1769-1839)]

Description: ‘A New Map of Northumberland divided into Wards, exhibiting its Roads, Rivers, Parks, &c’, published by John Cary, London, 1831. Although not acknowledged on the map, the geological colouring is by William Smith. Scale-1:c.225,000. Pencil annotations by George Bellas Greenough, from whose collection the map derives. Dissected on cloth, 53cm x 47cm. In slip case.

Publisher’s title on slip case ‘Geological map of Northumberland: on which are delineated by colours, the courses and width of the strata which occasion the varieties of soils; calculated to elucidate the agriculture of the county, to show the situation of the best materials for building, making roads, constructing canals, &c and pointing out those places where coal and other valuable minerals are likely to be found.’

Date: 1831

Format: Hand colouring on engraved base map

Archive reference: LDGSL/947/6/D/1/6

Image reference: 07-132

Recommended print size: Up to 70 x 50cm

‘Eastern side of second cove east of St Agnes called Park Cove’

 

 

Title: ‘Eastern side of second cove east of St Agnes called Park Cove’

Creator: John Josias Conybeare (1779-1824) after William Buckland (1784-1856)

Description: One of seven drawings presented to the Society by Conybeare, 18 June 1813, which related to the paper: Conybeare, J J, “Memoranda relative to the Porphyritic Veins, &c. of St. Agnes in Cornwall”, ‘Transactions of the Geological Society of London’, Series 1, Vol 4 (1817), pp401-403.

Date: 1813

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/78

Image reference: 05-100

Recommended print size: Up to 10 x 8 inches (25 x 14cm)

‘Eastern side of the fourth cove east of St Agnes’

Title: ‘Eastern side of the fourth cove east of St Agnes’

Creator: John Josias Conybeare (1779-1824) after William Buckland (1784-1856)

Description: One of seven drawings presented to the Society by Conybeare, 18 June 1813, which related to the paper: Conybeare, J J, “Memoranda relative to the Porphyritic Veins, &c. of St. Agnes in Cornwall”, ‘Transactions of the Geological Society of London’, Series 1, Vol 4 (1817), pp401-403.

Date: [c.1812-1813]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/79

Image reference: 05-99

Recommended print size: Up to 10 x 8 inches (25 x 14cm)

‘Eastern promontory of the first cove east of St Agnes’

Title: ‘Eastern promontory of the first cove east of St Agnes’

Creator: John Josias Conybeare (1779-1824) after William Buckland (1784-1856)

Description: One of seven drawings presented to the Society by Conybeare, 18 June 1813, which related to the paper: Conybeare, J J, “Memoranda relative to the Porphyritic Veins, &c. of St. Agnes in Cornwall”, ‘Transactions of the Geological Society of London’, Series 1, Vol 4 (1817), pp401-403.

Date: [c.1812-1813]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/81

Image reference: 05-98

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

‘Cligga Point 4 miles east of St Agnes Cornwall north coast’

Title: ‘Cligga Point 4 miles east of St Agnes Cornwall north coast’

Creator: John Josias Conybeare (1779-1824) after William Buckland (1784-1856)

Description: One of seven drawings presented to the Society by Conybeare, 18 June 1813, which related to the paper: Conybeare, J J, “Memoranda relative to the Porphyritic Veins, &c. of St. Agnes in Cornwall”, ‘Transactions of the Geological Society of London’, Series 1, Vol 4 (1817), pp401-403.

Date: [c.1812-1813]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/83

Image reference: 05-97

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

‘Curvature in killas on the coast immediately below St Agnes’

Title: ‘Curvature in killas on the coast immediately below St Agnes’

Creator: John Josias Conybeare (1779-1824) after William Buckland (1784-1856)

Description: One of seven drawings presented to the Society by Conybeare, 18 June 1813, which related to the paper: Conybeare, J J, “Memoranda relative to the Porphyritic Veins, &c. of St. Agnes in Cornwall”, ‘Transactions of the Geological Society of London’, Series 1, Vol 4 (1817), pp401-403.

Date: [c.1812-1813]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/85

Image reference: 05-96

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

‘Curvature of the limestone at Chepstow’

Title: ‘Curvature of the limestone at Chepstow’

Creator: John MacCulloch (1773-1835)

Description: The drawing was presented to the Society by MacCulloch on 17 January 1812.

From a series of the earliest drawings, paintings and prints given to the Society which were collected together in a volume entitled ‘Drawings I’.

Date: 1809

Format: Pencil drawing on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/73

Image reference: 05-95

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

View of the killas rocks at the Gun Wharf Plymouth Dock’

Title: ‘View of the killas rocks at the Gun Wharf Plymouth Dock’

Creator: John MacCulloch (1773-1835)

Description: The drawing accompanied a paper read before the Society on 6th December 1812, and published as: MacCulloch, J, “On a peculiar Disposition of the Colouring Matters in a Schistose Rock”, ‘Transactions of the Geological Society’, Series 1, vol 4 (1817), pp399-400. MacCulloch describes the picture thus: “The general colour of the mass is a faint brown red, and a number of dove-coloured stripes of unequal thickness may be seen traversing it in very irregular curved lines, but bearing a sort of parallelism or relation to each other. To say that it resembles strongly a piece of marble paper, will be a comparison as illustrative as it is familiar.”

From a series of the earliest drawings, paintings and prints given to the Society which were collected together in a volume entitled ‘Drawings I’.

Date: [c.1811]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/71

Image reference: 05-94

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

‘Cape Split, Nova Scotia’

Title: ‘Cape Split, Nova Scotia’

Creator: Possibly William Bruce Almon (1787-1840)

Description: The drawing, which was presented to the Society by Almon on 1 June 1810, shows the famous headland of the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada, which is subject to erosion – the two sea stacks depicted appear to have since collapsed.

From a series of the earliest drawings, paintings and prints given to the Society which were collected together in a volume entitled ‘Drawings I’.

Date: [c.1809-1810]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/55

Image reference: 05-93

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

‘Cape Blowmedown [Blomidon], Nova Scotia’

 

 

Title: ‘Cape Blowmedown [Blomidon], Nova Scotia’

Creator: Possibly William Bruce Almon (1787-1840)

Description: The drawing, which was presented to the Society by Almon on 1 June 1810, shows one of the headlands of the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada, which unlike the surrounding basaltic area is comprised of sandstone.

From a series of the earliest drawings, paintings and prints given to the Society which were collected together in a volume entitled ‘Drawings I’.

Date: [c.1809-1810]

Format: Watercolour on paper

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/54

Image reference: 05-92

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

‘Great Sea Dragons’

Title: ‘Great Sea Dragons…’

Creator: John Martin (1789-1854)

Description: This image by John Martin (1789-1854) depicts Jurassic life in the artist’s typical nightmarish and gothic style.  On the left, two plesiosaurs are attacking an ichthyosaur, whilst on the right pterosaurs are scavenging the corpse of another.

The eccentric fossil collector Thomas Hawkins (1810-1889) had amassed an apparently enviable collection of ichthyosaur and plesiosaur remains from Somerset and Lyme Regis – the latter through Mary Anning.  He produced two volumes on his collection, ‘Memoirs on Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri’ (1834) and ‘The book of the great sea-dragons, Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri … gedolim taninim, of Moses.  Extinct monsters of the ancient earth’ (1840), both in connection with its sale to the British Museum.  Unfortunately, it would be discovered after the purchase (for over £3000) that Hawkins quite freely filled in any missing bones with plaster, and some specimens were almost entirely ‘restorations’.   Hawkins’ collection is now held by the Natural History Museum, London.

Date: 1 January 1840

Source: Frontispiece to Thomas Hawkins’, The book of the great sea-dragons, Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri … gedolim taninim, of Moses. Extinct monsters of the ancient earth. With thirty plates, copied from skeletons in the author’s collection of fossil organic remains, (deposited in the British Museum). London: William Pickering (1840).

Format: Engraving

Image reference: 03-25

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

 

George Simmonds [Simonds] Boulger (1853-1922)

Title: Portrait of George Simmonds [Simonds] Boulger

Creator: Maull & Fox

Description: Cabinet card photograph of George Simmonds [Simonds] Boulger, elected: 1875.

“GEORGE SIMMONDS BOULGER (1853-1922) was a keen naturalist from his earliest childhood; he was appointed Professor of Natural History at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, in 1876, and occupied the chair for thirty years. As a lecturer on many scientific subjects, as author of a book on Elementary Geology, of several botanical volumes, and as an active contributor to natural history periodicals he rendered valuable service to biological science in the widest sense, and played a prominent part in spreading the gospel of Science among the people. He was elected into our Society in 1875.” Anniversary Address of the President, 16 February 1923, ‘Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society’, vol 79 (1923), lxiii.

Date: [1880s-1890s]

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: GSL/49/02/01

Image reference: 01-63

Recommended print size: Up to 10 x 8 inches (25 x 14cm)

Anniversary Dinner Menu, 1894

Title: Anniversary Dinner Menu, 1894

Creator: Unknown

Description: Cover of the menu for the Society’s Anniversary Dinner, held at the Criterion, 16 February 1894. The Anniversary Dinners were traditionally held after Annual General Meetings.

The image shows the then President Henry Woodward wearing his distinctive hat and waving a geological hammer in front of a cauldron from which are conjured various extinct animals, including a plesiosaur, mammoth, Triceratops, Megatherium and pterosaurs.

Date: 1894

Format: Lithograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/20

Image reference: 01-23

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)

Charles Dawson (1864-1916)

Title: Portrait of Charles Dawson

Creator: Maull & Fox

Description: Photograph of Charles Dawson, pictured in formal court dress, possibly taken at the royal levee in May 1906 at which he was presented to the king by his brother Lt Arthur Trevor Dawson, RN.

Charles Dawson would later be involved in the Piltdown Fraud.

Date: [May 1906]

Format: Black and white carte de visite

Archive reference: GSL/POR/49/17-01

Image reference: 01-19

Recommended print size: Up to 10 x 8 inches (25 x 14cm)

Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911)

Title: Portrait of Joseph Dalton Hooker

Creator: Maull & Fox

Description: Photographic portrait of the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, who was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society on 6 May 1846 (no.1488).

Date: [1877-1890]

Format: Carte de visite photograph

Archive reference: GSL/POR/45/03-04

Image reference: 01-18

Recommended print size: Up to 10 x 8 inches (25 x 14cm)

Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875)

Title: Portrait of Sir Charles Lyell

Creator: Unknown

Description: Painting of Sir Charles Lyell. Elected a Member of the Geological Society on 19 March 1819 (no.498), served as Secretary between 1823-1826, Foreign Secretary, 1829-1835, and twice as President, 1835-1837 and 1849-1851. Awarded the Wollaston Medal in 1866.

Lyell’s principal of uniformitarianism had a profound effect on geology in the nineteenth century. Referred to as ‘the present is the key to the past’—that geological processes happening now also happened in the distant past—the young Charles Darwin even took a copy of Lyell’s ‘Principles of Geology’ (first published in 1830) with him on the Beagle.

Lyell was knighted in 1848 and created a Baronet in 1864, the same year in which he was elected President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

The painting was purchased by the Geological Society for £1 in 1892.

Date: [c.1835]

Format: Oil painting in gilt frame, 71 x 56 cm

Archive reference: GSL/POR/9

Image reference: 01-09

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

William Buckland (1784-1856)

 

 

Title: Portrait of William Buckland

Creator: Attributed to Richard Ansdell

Description: Painting of William Buckland. Elected a Member of the Geological Society on 19 March 1813 (no.241). Served as President between 1824-1826, where during his tenure the Society was granted its Royal Charter which allowed it to bestow Fellowships.

Buckland was Professor of Mineralogy at the University of Oxford from 1813 and became its first Reader in Geology in 1818. Although principally a scientist, Buckland was ordained in 1808 and spent many years attempting to reconcile his religious faith with the geological evidence before him – particularly in relation to Noah’s Flood.

In the field, Buckland notoriously dressed in a rather eccentric manner, always wearing his academic gown and carrying a large blue bag from which he would draw out his latest finds such as fossil faeces of giant marine reptiles. Also, as a keen zoologist, it was his habit to eat his way through the animal kingdom, often serving such unexpected delicacies as crocodile or bluebottle to his dinner guests.

His wife was the natural history artist and geological curator Mary Buckland née Morland (1797-1857).

The painting was purchased by the Geological Society from Mrs Gordon, Buckland’s daughter, for 11 guineas in 1895.

Date: c.1843

Format: Oil painting in frame, 36 x 23 cm

Archive reference: GSL/POR/4

Image reference: 01-04

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

‘A view of Stone-Henge [Stonehenge] Wiltshire’

 

 

Title: ‘A view of Stone-Henge [Stonehenge] Wiltshire’

Creator: James Malton ([c.1760]-1803)

Description: The caption reads: ‘To the SOCIETY of Antiquarians LONDON, This Plate A view of STONE-HENGE Wiltshire With its accompanying Plate of explanations is humbly Dedicated by their obedient servant James Malton.’

The print was given to the Society by George Bellas Greenough.

Date: View taken March 1796, but published London, July 1800

Format: Aquatint

Archive reference: LDGSL/400/74

Image reference: 06-07

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)

Discussion on the Piltdown Skull

Title: Discussion on the Piltdown Skull

Creator: John Cooke (1866-1932)

Description: One of the Society’s most popular paintings, ‘Discussion on the Piltdown Skull’ commemorates a meeting of a group of scientists at the Royal College of Surgeons on 11 August 1913 who were continuing their discussion on the skull and jaw fragments of ‘Piltdown Man’ which were first presented at an Ordinary General Meeting of the Geological Society on 18 December 1912.

Between 1908 and 1912 Charles Dawson recovered the remains of a human skull from a reputedly ancient gravel bed located at Barkham Manor, near Piltdown in Sussex. Fossils of Neanderthals had already occurred in Germany and France. British Scientists were desperate to prove that Britain had also played its part in the story of human evolution, so Piltdown Man was the answer to their prayers – because of him, Britain could claim to be the birthplace of mankind.

In 1953, using the more modern dating techniques now available, Dr Kenneth Oakley from the Natural History Museum tested the remains and found that the skull fragments were not as ancient as originally claimed but instead 500 years old and the jaw came from an orang-utan. The teeth had been filed down to mimic a human like wear pattern and the remains had been boiled and stained to match the colour and antiquity of the Piltdown gravels.

The painting was produced by the artist John Cooke especially for exhibition at the Royal Academy in May 1915, where it was on sale for £750. It didn’t sell, but was so popular that cheaper lithographs were made and sold at a few guineas each. The painting remained in the artist’s collection, where it was purchased from his estate after his death for the smaller sum of £25 by Charles Taylor Trechmann, who then gifted it to the Society.

The sitters are (from back left to front right):

Frank Barlow, Dr Grafton Elliot Smith, Charles Dawson, Dr Arthur Smith Woodward, Arthur Underwood, Dr Arthur Keith (curator of the Hunterian, Royal College of Surgeons), William Pycraft, Edwin Ray Lankester.

Date: 1915

Format: Oil painting in frame, 183 x 224 cm

Archive reference: GSL/POR/19

Image reference: 01-06

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)

  • Small £2.50 + P+P
  • Medium £5.50 + P+P
  • Large + P+P