Simon J. Knell

Hugh Miller: fossils, landscape and literary geology

The bicentenary of the birth of Hugh Miller (1802–1856) in Cromarty (in northern Scotland) has enabled a reappraisal of this fine spare-time geologist, in turn stonemason and banker, and eventually Edinburgh newspaper editor. In Cromarty he had the usual advantages and limitations of a local collector far from metropolitan centres. But Miller was different from other collectors: he was author of classic books such as The Old Red Sandstone , making famous the Old Red Sandstone fishes and Jurassic marine fossils of the area around Cromarty. Millers ironically titled autobiography My Schools and Schoolmasters recommended geology as an improving recreation. His writings are suffused with the thrill of discovery and the wonder and beauty of fossils, inspiring future geologists such as John Muir (1838–1914), pioneer of environmental conservation, and George Jennings Hinde (1839–1918), microfossil researcher. In his often autobiographical writings Miller made geology an integral part of the world as he saw it: he was not ‘just’ a ‘popularizer’, but (as he always wanted) a literary man in the all-encompassing Victorian manner. Geology merged with local history and folklore — all ‘libraries’ of the past. But his writings remain rooted in insightful observation — as scientist and poet — of specimen and scenery, from microscope slide to landscape, and in careful reconstruction, for instance, of fossil animals from fragmentary remains. When Miller dealt with wider issues of God in creation and the truths of geology, he deployed his fossils, as in Footprints of the Creator (1849) which attacked the reheated Lamarckian evolutionism of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844). But, contrary to the common misconception that he was driven to suicide by a conflict between science and religion, Miller simply saw these as different facets of the same truth. Indeed, he notably defended geology against religious literalists. Millers fossil collection is now mostly in the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, with some specimens in the new Hugh Miller museum, Cromarty, which derives from that founded by his son, also called Hugh (1850–1896), a professional geologist with the Geological Survey. This appraisal reveals further depths to Hugh Millers appreciation of geological specimens, and to the significance of his surviving collection. Millers relationship with the material world of objects shows remarkable consistency and an unwillingness to compartmentalize: Millers fossils exemplify the deep continuity of his world.

Collecting, conservation and conservatism: late twentieth century developments in the culture of British geology

Abstract The last three decades of the twentieth century saw a transformation of the place and influence in British society of two cultural themes: environmental conservation and the values of political conservatism. These are here used to examine cultural change in the science of geology at two levels of resolution. First, the micropolitics of the science are revealed through a study of collecting in an era of conservation. Here the scientific hegemony confronted the more populist and commercially driven wings of geology. This was a period of campaign and conflict, leading to the eventual accommodation of opposing views. The second section examines the macropolitics of the science’s institutional infrastructure through a study of a science in a period of recession and under the control of an ideologically motivated Conservative government. The challenge for science was to acquire appropriate government patronage. Here patterns of decline and growth in the science are revealed, driven by supposedly ‘external’ factors. Both perspectives show how the notion of accountability became critical to the science at all levels, and how, in an era which saw the revolutionizing of mass communication, language became fundamental to the political progress of the science.

Celebrating the age of the Earth

Abstract The age of the Earth has been a subject of intellectual interest for many centuries, even millennia. Of the early estimates, Archbishop Ussher’s famous calculation of 4004 bc for the date of Creation represents one of the shortest time periods ever assigned to the Earth’s age, but by the seventeenth century many naturalists were sceptical of such chronologies. In the eighteenth century it was Nature that provided the record for Hutton and others. But not all observers of geology enquired about time. Many, like William Smith, simply earned a living from their practical knowledge of it, although his nephew, John Phillips, was one of the first geologists to attempt a numerical age for the Earth from the depositional rates of sediments. For more than fifty years variations of that method prevailed as geology’s main tool for dating the Earth, while the physicists constrained requirements for a long timescale with ever more rigorous, and declining, estimates of a cooling Sun and Earth. In 1896 the advent of radioactivity provided the means by which the Earth’s age would at last be accurately documented, although it took another sixty years. Since that time ever more sophisticated chronological techniques have contributed to a search for the oldest rocks, the start of life, and human evolution. In the attempt to identify those landmarks, and others, we have greatly progressed our understanding about the processes that shape our planet and the Universe, although in doing so we discover that the now-accepted age of the Earth is but a ‘geochemical accident’ which remains a contentious issue.

A Bibliography of Museum Studies

Contents: Museum Context: Museums - an introduction Museums UK Museums Western Europe Museums America Collection Studies & Museum History: General Britain Europe America Asia & Australasia Material Culture: Theory General Animal Derivative Ceramic Glass Man-made Metalwork Painters Materials Photography Printing Stone Textile Vegetable Woodwork Fakes Collection Management: General Acquisition Acquisition Law Documentation Computer Documentation Conservation Issues Conservation Practice Conservation Laboratories Relative Humidity Light Atmospheric Pollutants Infestation Storage Handling, Packing & Transport Insurance & Indemnity Disaster Planning Security Disposal Research: General Environmental Recording Communication & Exhibitions: Communication Theory Visitor Studies Languages & Texts Exhibition Theory Exhibition Practice Evaluation of Exhibitions Museum Education: Educational Role of Museums Museum Education Theory History of Museum Education Museum Education and Children Museum Education and Adults Evaluation of Museum Education Programmes Museum Services Provision & Development: Museums & Communities Childrens Museums Special Needs Provision Science & Discovery Centres Site Interpretation Enquiries Publication Museum Restaurants & Shops Professional & Institutional Context: Museums Profession Museum Professionalism Codes of Conduct Institutional Standards Governing Bodies Museum Management: Management in Museums Policy, Planning & Performance Managing People Financial Management Managing Museum Sites Project Management Marketing Museums Museum Buildings Information Sources: Abstracts Bibliographies Directories Periodicals Author Index.

The road to Smith: how the Geological Society came to possess English geology

Abstract The modern image of the Geological Society owes much to William Smith whom the Society used, in 1831, to claim ascendency over European rivals. At its birth, however, the Society pursued a science adopted from the Continent, which privileged field data and saw mineralogy and chemistry as the sciences of the Earth. The Societys birth mobilized the nation; its co-operative, mobile, investigative, subtly theoretical and didactic vigour materialized in the production of Greenoughs geological map of England. Yet Smiths geology spread virus-like, converting the membership in various ways, some acknowledging Smith, others denying him. In possession of Smiths geology, and impressed by his publications, the Society men emerged from a philosophical wilderness, only to break out in a competitive fever to write an Elements of Geology. The Societys great supporter, John Farey, broke free, disillusioned and determined to destroy Greenough. Nevertheless, Greenough pushed forward with his map, competing directly with Smith and intent on surpassing him. However, following the development of a powerbase for his geology in Yorkshire, Smith rode into London to be crowned the father of a peculiarly English science. Smiths map now became the national icon of English geology, less than a decade after the Society had rendered it obsolete. Next to it, Greenoughs map – the Societys ‘glory’ – symbolized the Societys co-operative spirit and political acumen, attributes no less important to the sciences advance.