A History of Science — Volume 5Williams, Henry Smith
History
A History of Science — Volume 5
Williams, Henry Smith
Science -- History
Within recent years the natural history collection has been removed _in
toto_ from the old building to a new site far out in South Kensington,
and the casual visitor is likely to think of it as a separate
institution. The building which it occupies is very modern in appearance
as in fact. It is a large and unquestionably striking structure, and one
that gives opportunity for very radical difference of opinion as to its
architectural beauty. By some it is much admired; by others it is almost
equally scoffed at. Certain it is that it will hardly bear comparison
with the parent building in Great Russell Street.
Interiorly, the building of the natural history museum is admirably
adapted for its purpose. Its galleries are for the most part well
lighted, and the main central hall is particularly well adapted for
an exhibition of specimens, to which I shall refer more at length in
a moment. For the rest there is no striking departure from the
conventional. Perhaps it is not desired that there should be, since long
experience seems to have settled fairly well the problem of greatest
economy of space, combined with best lighting facilities, which always
confronts the architect in founding a natural history museum.
There is, however, one striking novel feature in connection with the
structure of the natural history museum at Kensington which must not
be overlooked. This is the quite unprecedented use of terra-cotta
ornamentation. Without there is a striking display of half-decorative
and half-realistic forms; while within the walls and pillars everywhere
are covered with terracotta bas-reliefs representing the various forms
of life appropriate to the particular department of the museum which
they ornament. This very excellent feature might well be copied
elsewhere, and doubtless will be from time to time.
As to the exhibits proper within the museum, it may be stated in a word
that they cover the entire range of the faunas and floras of the
globe in a variety and abundance of specimens that are hardly excelled
anywhere, and only duplicated by one or two other collections in Europe
and two or three in America.
It would be but a reiteration of what the catalogues of all large
collections exhibit were one to enumerate the various forms here shown,
but there are two or three exhibits in this museum which are more novel
and which deserve special mention. One of these is to be found in a set
of cases in the main central hall. Here are exhibited, in a delightfully
popular form, some of the lessons that the evolutionist has taught us
during the last half-century. Appropriately enough, a fine marble statue
of Darwin, whose work is the fountain-head of all these lessons, is
placed on the stairway just beyond, as if to view with approval this
beautiful exemplification of his work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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