Some rare treasures are hidden within the Petrology collection of the Natural History Museum, and this brunch of a bush, encrusted with sinter, which formed prior to 1886 around hot springs on the shores of the old Lake Rotomahana (warm lake) in New Zealand, is one of them.
NHM petrology specimen of siliceous sinter encrusting a brunch of a bush, from White Terraces of Lake Rotomahana.
This is the first of a series of new blogs focusing on external researchers who use the Library and Archive collections, to give them the opportunity to talk about their work and the role that our collections have played in their research. A perfect way to celebrate National #LibrariesDay! Our first post in the series is from student Zoe Barnett, who describes the importance of her access to our resources for her research into stone carving.
I remember visiting the Museum as a small child and being as fascinated with the outside of the building as I was with its contents. Now, 20 years later, I’m in my final year at the City and Guilds of London Art School, studying Architectural Stone Carving and I have to admit my interest in the ornamentation has grown dramatically!
An example of the original Waterhouse drawings of the animals that adorn the walls of the Museum
During my second year at college I developed an interest in the terracotta animals that decorate the building. As part of a drawing project I spent time studying them, and I especially liked the panels on the large gate pillars on Cromwell Road. My drawing tutor introduced me to a reference book about the drawings for the terracotta models and I discovered the architect, Alfred Waterhouse, made them all.
Earlier in the summer I tweeted a picture of a microfossil slide I made in 1997. On the back I had written that it was made while I was listening to England bowl Australia out for 118 in a cricket test match at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
A microfossil slide with a cricket-related annotation on the back.
The slide got me thinking about more important hidden notes I have found recently that relate to historical events and provide a context to the microfossil collection. This post examines evidence of a collector’s escape from a disintegrating ice floe, attempts to cover-up a major disagreement between two scientists and the sad end for a laboratory that led to my first job as a curator.
