2010

    * Celebrating the 350th anniversary of John Ray’s Catalogue of Cambridge Plants, 1660: the first English “County Flora”, 3 November 2010

The Joint meeting between the Society for the History of Natural History and the Ray Society to celebrate the 350th anniversary of John Ray’s Catalogue of Cambridge Plants, 1660: the first English “County Flora” took place in Cambridge University Library, on Wednesday 3rd November 2010.  The Morison room provided an ideal venue for the event, giving the 44 registered participants an opportunity to see the current public exhibition “Dream voices, Siegfried Sassoon, Memory and war” on their arrival and departure, as well as a Library exhibition showing John Ray’s works, sources and successors: “A great deal in a little room” – John Ray’s Cambridge catalogue (1660)".

The focus of the event was the forthcoming publication of a new translation of the “Catalogue of Cambridge Plants 1660” by the Ray Society and the first speaker, Dr Chris Preston, one of the co-authors of that work, changed our view of John Ray, as presented by Canon Raven’s work, discussing the structure of the “Catalogus”, Ray’s information sources and Ray’s possible co-authors among other aspects which emerged as part of the work done by him and Philip Oswald.  Their use of resources in the Cambridge University Library made this a particularly relevant occasion.  They were followed by a more detailed look at the availability of Ray’s bibliographic sources and the contents of his own library by Dr Karen Reeds. After this the programme reverted to more botanical considerations with Dr Mark Hill talking on Ray as an early worker on mosses and liverworts, with the addition of the mosses being highlighted on the title page of Ray’s second edition. The morning session finished with Alex Wragge-Morley explaining to us the formalities underlying the ways knowledge was communicated in Ray’s time and their belief that this could change the moral and ethical disposition of their readers, which choice of the right scale for metaphors and similes being of prime importance, giving examples for Ray’s own writings.

Delegates had an opportunity to view the accompanying Library display during the lunch break, after enjoying excellent refreshments provided by the University Library catering services.  The captions for the display were available to all in printed form, the extensive notes being prepared with assistance from the University Library staff. We are most grateful to Philip Oswald, Chris Preston and Emily Dourish for all their hard work in making this available and to Bill Noblett for facilitating the display and the use of the Morison Room.

The afternoon session embraced wider aspects of Ray and his legacy. His zoological work was clearly presented by Prof Tim Birkhead, who introduced us to Ray’s “Wisdom of God” as well as to  Ray’s patron, Francis Willughby  and their “grand tour”  focussed on ornithology.  The “Ornithology”was published in 1676  under Willughby’s name although actually Ray’s work.   The next speaker, Prof, Paul Foster, discussed the links between John Ray and Gilbert White, with particular reference to White’s  “Calendar of Flora”, one of the  main source for White’s natural history information being Ray’s “Methodus Plantarum” of 1682. The last speaker, Prof. Sam Berry, extended our view of Ray by showing the progression from the physico-theology of Ray as exemplified in the “Wisdom of God” to “Intelligent design” in the present day, showing us how ideas and concepts evolved as might be expected from an evolutionary biologist.

Thanks are expressed to the Cambridge University Library, for providing such an appropriate venue for the meriting, with excellent support staff and facilities, to all those involved in mounting the accompanying exhibition and to all the speakers, as well as to Professor David Mabberley, a member of the Ray Society Council and former SHNH President for chairing the first session and to Dr Isabelle Charmantier, a member of the current SHNH Council, for chairing the afternoon session.    

Gina Douglas SHNH Meetings Secretary

5 November 2010

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Spring Meeting and SGM/AGM

Philip Henry Gosse Bicentenary Celebration: Celebrating the life and work of Philip Henry Gosse

Friday and Saturday 14 and 15 May 2010
Torquay Museum, 529 Babbacombe Road, Torquay, TQ1 1HG, UK

The Torquay Museum, near Gosse’s home in Marychurch,  in the later years of his life, was the venue for the 2010 Spring meeting and AGM, and welcomed 36 delegates to their Pengelly Hall for two days in a somewhat unseasonably cool May.

The keynote speaker, Ann Thwaite, author of Glimpses of the Wonderful, the life of Philip Henry Gosse 1810-1888, explained how she came to him through writing a biography of his son, Edmund Gosse. She outlined Gosse’s links with Torquay, and also the use of “Henry” in referring to him, continuing to summarise his life and achievements in natural history. She was followed by John Hodges, of the U3A group associated with the museum, for further clarification of the use of “Henry” Gosse when referring to him as well as the use of the term “aquarium”.

This lead naturally on to John Rundle, senior aquarist at the Marine Biological Association, who introduced us to the world of aquaria, past and present, remaining with marine life  and the possible impact of the Victorian marine aquarium craze in a presentation by Keith Hiscock, an Associate Fellow of the MBA, who gave us the result of his surveys of some of Gosse’s key sites, revealing that generally much the same species were present, apart from  sea anemones and serpulid reefs. Possible resins were suggested for this.

The afternoon session closed with a joint paper by the President,  Geoff Moore, co-authored with Ray Williams, on the art of the zoologist, T. A. Stephenson.

The first day session concluded with an opportunity to see both the permanent collections in the Museum and a visit to behind the scenes of the Natural History Store, with the curator, Barry Chandler, managing to give everyone an opportunity, despite the limited space!

Drinks and a superb conference dinner of home cooked food in Pengelly’s café, were rounded off by a masterly reading of At Marychurch by the poet Anthony Thwaite,  and a vote of thanks to the Torquay Museum Society, the helpful and accommodating staff and to those of Pengelly’s café.

Saturday morning  started with a beautifully illustrated presentation by Catherine Levy on Gosse’s time in Jamaica, showing us the landscapes there as well as specimens collected by Gosse and pictures of the living birds, and some of his other illustrations of insects. Gosse’s beautiful images were a key feature in Chris Meechan's presentation which showed how they served as sources for exquisite glass models of marine life by the Blaschka family.

The last of the formal presentations, by Ray Williams, unravelled the complex printing history of  Gosse’s Actinologia, revealing its true publication date to be 31 December 1859 and also identified the source of mysterious pirated copies of his plates. Thanks were expressed to all who had contributed to making the meeting a success.   

Gina Douglas, SHNH Meetings Secretary

SHNH members enjoyed a special visit to the Mrs Delany and her Circle exhibit at Sir John Soane's Museum in London.  Led by Gina Douglas, Meetings Secretary, members viewed the exquisite embroidery, botanical collages, drawings and garden designs of Mary Delany who was at the centre of artistic, literary, fashionable and political life in 18th century England and Ireland.

Mary Delany numbered Handel, Swift, Pope and Walpole among her friends and was described by Edmund Burke as a woman of fashion for all ages. Best known for her detailed botanical collages, which she called "paper mosaicks", the exhibition explores the intersection of the worlds she inhabited and draws upon a wide range of handcrafted items including textiles, landscape drawings, manuscripts and of course the paper cuts and collages.

This exhibition, organised by Sir John Soane's Musuem and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, USA, is accompanied by a major publication Mary Delany and her Circle published by the Soane and the Yale Center for British Art.

Exhibition: Mrs Delaney and her Circle / Promiscuous Assemblage, Friendship & The Order of Things, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, closed on May 1 2010.

Image: Mary Delany, Portlandia Grandiflora, 1782, collage of coloured papers with watercolour and body colour on black ink background, © The Trustees of the British Museum