2008

2008

London's Natural History: Past, Present and Future

11 October 2008.

Joint meeting with the London Natural History Society and Linnean Society of London, UK. Over 100 people attended this meeting, organised by the LNHS with support from the other two Societies. This was reflected in the large LNHS attendance but in many cases there was an overlapping membership. Dr Helen Phillips, CEO of Natural England, gave the opening address and the morning and afternoon sessions were chaired by Mark Burgess, President of the LNHS and Arthur Lucas, President of the SHNH respectively.

The seven papers covered wide-ranging aspects of London’s natural history and have been published by the London Natural History Society as London's Changing Natural History: Classic papers from 150 years of the London Natural History Society. Edited by Mark Burgess.

Turner 500 & Hancock 200: Naturalists in NE England

A joint meeting between SHNH and the Natural History Society of Northumbria [NHSN]

Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

5-7th September 2008

Meeting Secretary's Report

Despite the presence of an intense depression, bringing constant heavy rain and winds, 32 delegates and 10 speakers (15 being SHNH members and 17 being NHSN members) gathered at Henderson Hall, Newcastle,  for this joint meeting with the Natural History Society of Northumbria. 

Presentations alternated between Turner and Hancock, with coverage of other NE Naturalists. High points in the meeting included displays of Turner’s A New Herball and other books as well as Hancock artwork, all retrieved from the stored treasures of the NHSN by David Gardner-Medwin.  Eric Morton brought out of storage a superb example of Hancock taxidermy for us to admire.

A planned visit to the Chantry Museum at Morpeth was cancelled at short notice when news came that Morpeth residents were being evacuated due to flooding.   Instead, our local organisers diverted the coach to Cherryburn, home of Thomas Bewick, despite flooded roads and rivers in spate. A session at the Mining Institute gave us a chance to see their Library and experience the historic lecture theatre but an evening event in the Lit and Phil Soc. prevented us from viewing the Library there.

Friendly and helpful staff at Henderson Hall and support from the local “team” of David Gardner-Medwin, Les Jessop and Peter Davis (including Lucy Thompson in the University) ensured that everything went smoothly despite the weather. We are most grateful for  the support of the NHSN in making this a memorable meeting and regret that we were not able to enjoy the promised delights in Morpeth.  

Gina Douglas, Meetings Secretary

Log books, ledgers and field notebooks: what historical records can reveal

Spring Meeting, AGM & EGM 2008, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Friday 16th and Saturday 17th May 2008

Meeting Secretary's Report

The SHNH Spring Meeting was held in Edinburgh on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th May. The EGM and AGM took place on Friday afternoon following an excellent tour of the museum at Surgeon’s Hall under the informed guidance of John Chalmers, who not only had a personal acquaintance with some of the pathology specimens on display but who also gave us a most interesting presentation on J. J. Audubon’s links with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.  We are most grateful to the Royal College for their hospitality and to Kaisey Baillie who made sure everything was in place.  

The AGM was followed by a reception hosted by our Publishers, Edinburgh University Press, which enabled some of us to meet those now involved with the production of Archives of Natural History.  A number of us then had dinner together before going our various ways to prepare for the following day.

On Saturday morning we gathered at the Balfour Building where the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was our host. A series of interesting presentations began with Dr Pat Morris presenting a fascinating story which took us from big game hunting in India to ways of preserving the results though taxidermy. This combined a family saga and trade secrets with tales of their perseverance in order to preserve some of the invaluable records for posterity.

We then moved on to  questions such as to what  the apparently exotic birds served up at Court banquets might really be and, if not as exotic as first appears, how were they supplied in the recorded quantities and are these in turn accurate or embellished for “spin”. It seems that Tudor bookkeeping was very thorough and can help in opening up a window into the past.

A brief review of recent Linnean Society of London acquisitions was followed by an abundant and delicious lunch, with newcomers to Scotland meeting “stovies” to warm them before venturing out to explore the delights of the Garden as the weather brightened.

In the afternoon we learnt about the eternal pessimism of fishermen and how the historic records can be used to prove that it was not always “better in the past”, with Dr Ronald Campbell of the Tweed Foundation. This was followed by Nigel Monaghan outlining the history of the Irish Caves Excavation Committee of the Royal Irish Academy in the first quarter of the 20th century. He explained how their 'bone books' have proved essential to the unravelling of the story of the Irish Quaternary mammalian fauna, providing the key resource in unlocking funding to document and date the collection. Before the emergence of tea and extremely tempting scones, Pat Morris delighted us with the unscheduled saga of Walter Potter’s taxidermy, some of which is now in his possession.

Jane Hutcheon, Head of Library Services, with archivist Leonie Paterson and Graham Hardy from the library provided constant assistance and Leonie mounted a most interesting display of photographs of some of the “log books” and field notebooks in the  Edinburgh collections.  We are most grateful for all their support and help in making this meeting possible keeping it running so smoothly.


Gina Douglas, Meetings Secretary

Foyle Special Collections Library, King's College London

Friday 14 March 2008

SHNH members were greeted by Katie Sambrook, Special Collections Librarian, and her colleages Hugh Cahill and Brandon High.  They began by giving us a brief history of the collections and  their recent enlargement, thanks to the  historical library collection of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) which was transferred to King’s College on permanent loan in 2007. The group then had an opportunity to view the special exhibition of natural history books. This was followed by a tour of the main College Library, with a chance to see some of special architectural features.  

The donated fees for the visit funded the restoration of  John Forbes Royle's "Illustrations of the botany and other branches of the natural history of the Himalayan mountains" (1839) to be conserved. Royle was Professor of Materia Medica at King's from 1837 to 1856.

 
 
The Society for the History of Natural History (Registered Charity No.2103555 in England and Wales)