Lyle on the Jurassic Coast, Post #3

            

            For the last leg of my trip, I went to Oxford to visit the university’s History of Science Museum and Museum of Natural History. After taking the train from Swanage to Oxford, I went on a walking tour of part of the campus. This tour happened to go through New College, one of the many colleges at the university and the location of some filming from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (when Malfoy gets turned into a ferret!). I wasn’t expecting to visit the filming site, and seeing it made me embarrassingly happy.

I finally found some Tate & Lyle sugar on the train! Backstory: completely unaware of this brand, my parents named their first two children Lyle and Tate. A family member realized the serendipity of the names after my younger brother was born, and when we informed the company, they featured us in their newsletter and sent us free hats and t-shirts. Needless to say, I'd been looking for some Tate & Lyle sugar all week.

The Radcliffe Camera, one of the most famous buildings in Oxford

The chapel at New College

After learning more about Oxford University, its history, and the city of Oxford itself, I stopped at the History of Science Museum. Built in 1683, this museum is the world’s oldest building that was actually created to be a museum open to the public. The modern version of this museum, with its focus on the history of science and scientific instruments, came about in 1924 with the acquiring of Lewis Evans’ large collection of scientific instruments. Many of these were astrolabes or sundials, of which there were an overwhelming amount on display. As almost all the instruments in the museum were, at least, older than 100 years old, many of these mathematical or astronomical tools were made of beautifully crafted metal, and were pieces of art to admire in addition to being significant to the history of science. The most modern object I saw was a basic electronic calculator, though this lack of modern instruments may have been due to much of the installation concerning medical history in the twentieth century being under renovation. As a whole, the museum’s collection, spread out over three floors, included scientific instruments used in many different fields of science, including geography, biology, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. The exhibits highlighted artifacts from different eras of science, like the Renaissance, or different locations of scientific inquiry, like the Islamic World. Additionally, the museum brought attention to specific individuals in the history of science. One exciting example was a blackboard on which Albert Einstein, during a lecture at Oxford, had written an equation concerning relativity and the expansion of the universe. After the lecture, the blackboard was immediately brought to the museum, and is currently preserved with its original chalk!

Earlier this year in the HistSci 97 tutorial, we each were assigned an object from the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard to write about. My object was a Culpepper compound microscope, of which I saw multiple at Oxford’s museum. This close analyzation of the instruments in the CHSI definitely made me feel more informed and prepared to see Oxford’s museum collection, as I felt I had a greater understanding of what many of these instruments were and, more broadly, the significance of collections of historical scientific instruments in understanding the evolution of science over time.

 

The History of Science Museum

Einstein's writing

Some of the many microscopes on display

The next day, I went to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, the location of many plesiosaur, ichthyosaur, and dinosaur fossils, as well as significant collections and exhibits on geological and natural history. The building itself was stunning, designed in a neo-Gothic style with vaulted ceilings, large windows, and intricate stonework. Around the main hall were columns fashioned from different rocks found in the United Kingdom, as well as statues of famous scientific figures, including Newton, Galileo, and Darwin. This building was also the location of the famous Huxley-Wilberforce debate over Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and the museum had a thorough exhibit on Darwin’s theory of natural selection and his start in geology.

The Oxford Museum of Natural History

The building interior, showing the dinosaur bones on display

Suspended cetacean (whale and dolphin) skeletons

Whale hello there!

It is also home to a large exhibit on marine reptiles and dinosaurs, which was very informative about these creatures while they were alive, especially since up to that point I had been more focused on the discovery and significance of their fossilized remains. On the day I visited, a couple of museum volunteers had set up a booth with fossils we could hold, as well as small models of what plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs may have looked like, and were very knowledgeable about these reptiles’ diets and bone structures. Cool fact: plesiosaur fossils have been found with gastroliths (stones) in their stomachs, which were likely used in order to increase their body density and keep themselves from floating on account of the air in their lungs! In the exhibit, there were also huge fossils that had been found recently, including one near Oxford. Next to these specimens were touch screens with videos detailing how these remains were found and the sophisticated x-ray technology that was used to make 3D models of the fossils before they were removed from their clay casing. These models allowed paleontologists to avoid damaging the fossils in the process of removing them from the hardened rock, as they had a reference to look at while doing fine cuts and cleanings. The exhibit did a good job of highlighting how scientific knowledge is advanced due to new discoveries or technologies.

A plesiosaur skeleton had 40 vertebra in its neck, although some have been found with over 70!

A giant ammonite and a really excited kid :)

The museum's tribute to Mary Anning. There were many of these "Shout out for Women in Science" posters, taped to glass shadow boxes of the exhibits, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of (selective) women's suffrage in England (2018). A shout out is great, but I would've preferred the museum mark the anniversary by updating the actual exhibits themselves to include more information about female scientists. The form of posters made it feel like an afterthought, and they didn't stand out at all next to the exciting objects in the shadow boxes. Additionally, some of the scientists featured on the posters worked in fields that had little connection to the exhibits by which they were placed, which made the posters look haphazard.

The museum also had information on William Buckland sprinkled through multiple exhibits. Buckland, a president of the Geological Society,  was the first to describe a dinosaur in a scientific paper. In fact, the footprints of the Megalosuar, as he called it, can be seen walking across the grass in front of the museum. He was also Oxford’s first professor of geology, and was known for his eccentric and entertaining lectures that attracted many new students to the subject.  As a professor, he played a large role in establishing the study of the subject at the university in a time when the field was still coming into its own. Despite this, however, it is somewhat ironic that information about Buckland was included frequently in the museum, since by the time of the museum’s founding Buckland had faced so much pushback in making the natural sciences a more established study at Oxford that he had given up his pursuit, left the university (to become the Dean of Westminster), and did not think it worthwhile to support the museum project.

A bust of Buckland with the years of his time at Oxford

Megalosaur tracks outside the museum

During his time as a scholar at the university, Buckland made important discoveries in paleontology, including correctly identifying a prehistoric hyena den in the UK. Additionally, the found the “Red Lady” of Paviland in South Wales, which to this day is the oldest human specimen found in the UK. The skeleton was discovered with mammoth bones nearby; however, Buckland did not believe that mammoths and humans lived concurrently, so he developed another theory. Based on what he thought were decorative items nearby, he posited that these were the remains of a British prostitute from Roman times. However, later research and carbon dating has shown that this “lady” was actually a male who lived about 34,000 years ago. The red coloring on the bones came from the wrapping practices used during the man’s burial.

A silhouette of the Buckland family, with William's wife Mary and son Frank (under the table). William Buckland is holding a hyena skull.

Buckland's discovery of the hyena den invited much praise and attention, like this carton by William Conybeare imagining Buckland peering into the past with his deductions by paleontological evidence.

Some of the bones of the Red "Lady" of Paviland

I spent a long time in the museum learning about ancient creatures, geologic history, evolution, and admiring the many specimens from the animal kingdom on display. By the end, I had museum-ed myself out and was exhausted. However, I was still sad to leave, as my next stop was the train station—to head back to London, and then back to the USA. My time on this trip was an amazing experience in learning about the fascinating history of geology and paleontology, including the exciting discoveries and colorful characters that are part of this history. I’ve definitely left this trip with a deeper understanding about how “nature” was viewed during this time period, and how different discoveries, individuals, and theories contributed to or changed that perception. Additionally, I was able to visit briefly with friends and have great conversations with strangers. There are very few ways to spend four days better than by hiking through pastures in the English countryside and along cliffs with incredible views of the Atlantic. Most of all, I was able to embark on my first substantial solo trip, and learned much about the experience of traveling alone, its challenges and rewards. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to go on this trip, and can’t wait to bring this experience and newfound knowledge back to my classes this fall!

Sunset in Oxford