Come along at 14.30 to the Attenborough Studio and join Daisy Cunynghame (Assistant Records Manager, Library & Archives) as she talks about a fascinating slice of Museum history.

The Museum has survived two world wars, the Blitz and the rise of nuclear weapons. It has not always escape unscathed, as the pockmarks of bomb damage covering the side entrance show, but it has always been prepared. Join her as she delves into the Museum's Archives to discover the extreme lengths that scientists and staff went to in order to protect the collections during World War II. Find out about the initial planning, mobilisation and the evacuation of specimens, hear tales of espionage and reveal the scientific work carried out by the Museum to aid the war effort.

This event is FREE!

"Evidently a record of weights" - a somewhat curious title but not a surprising one for this manuscript volume from the Banksian collection in the Botany Library from the bequest of Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820).

It is assumed that they are the weights of some of the visitors to Banks' residence at 32 Soho Square where he lived from 1777 until his death. It was also in 1777 that Banks began his long association with Jonas Dryander who's name appears in the front of the volume.

This alphabeticaly arranged manuscript notebook of people's weights was started with some vigour on St. Valentines Day in 1778 with that of Lord Athlone. The final "weigh-in" recorded was Mr Amiot in August 1814.

Lord Athlone's weight is given as "13 8 1/2" and is immediatedly followed by his wife, Lady Athlone, who weighed in on the same day almost 2 stones heavier at "15 10 1/2".

The manuscript also charts Banks' own weight and those members of his family namely his mother "Mrs Banks of Chelsea", his wife "Mrs Banks" and his sister, Sarah Sofia "Miss Banks" who lived with them in Soho Square. Once Banks became a Baronet in 1771 his entry changed accordingly to "Sir Joseph Banks" and his wife to "Lady Banks".

The volume is interesting for many reasons in that it documents some of the guests to Banks' house and include many important and influential people of the time. They include :

Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), Scottish geographer and Hydrographer of the British Admiralty (13 stone, 2 pounds on Oct. 29, 1779)

Georg Forster (1754-1794), German naturalist who travelled on Cook's second voyage to the Pacific (10 stone, 3 pounds on Febr. 27, 1778)

Abbe Fontana (1730-1805), founder of modern toxinology (10 stone, 13 pounds on Aug. 18, 1778)

Charles Greville (1749-1809), MP for Warwick and authority on tropical plant gardening and collector of antiquities (10 stone, 6 1/4 pounds on Feb 14, 1778). On a return visit on March 19, 1781 he was slightly heavier at 10 stone, 9 pounds.

Nikolaus von Jacquin (1727-1817), eminent scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany (10 stone, 4 pounds on June 19, 1789 with an increase of 2 pounds upon his next visit on Dec.27, 1789).

James Lee (1715-1795), Scottish nurseryman (12 stone, 8 1/2 on Sept. 20, 1778)

Reverend John Lightfoot (1735-1788), English conchologist and botanist (12 stone on May 11, 1778).

Major James Rennell (1742-1830), English geography and pioneer of Oceanography (upon his first visit on March 20, 1781 he weighted 9 stone 11. The most weighed visitor at a total of eight weigh-ins, his final entry on April 21, 1789 was 9 stone, 4 1/2 pounds).

Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), Swedish naturalist and apostle of Linnaeus (9 stone, 12 pounds on Dec. 25, 1778)

The weights are not all of humans though, Mab the dog appears three times and a Terrapin from the Galapagos also features twice in the volume :

It is not clear why the weights of visitors (and animals) were documented, but Banks was regarded as a born adminstrator and valued classificatory order. In December 1799, he had compiled a set of tables of money, weights and measures of all the trading nations at the time and his interest in the international standardisation of weights and measures saw him invited to Paris by the French Government to confer with the Institut on the fundamental units of Weights and Measures.

Banks also performed the chairing role on the British Government's committee to review Britain's system of weights and measures from 1817-1819. Following their report, the imperial system of weights and measures was introduced in 1824.

By Lisa Di Tommaso

The Library recently lent a selection of its artwork and manuscripts to two institutions in Australia. Watercolours from the First Fleet, Sydney Parkinson and Ferdinand Bauer collections went to the Australian National Maritime Museum for their exhibition entitled Fish in Australian Art.

State Library of New South Wales

Items relating to John Lewin, the first professional artist to travel to Australia and earn his living there, are on loan to the State Library of New South Wales as part of their new exhibition, Wild Art.

A member of the Library’s staff travelled with the material from London, ensuring it arrived safely. While there, she was also able to see the items for the Lewin exhibition installed in the gallery.

Exhibitions such as these provide a unique opportunity for the Library to showcase its special collections throughout the world and allow greater access to our materials.

State Library of New South Wales

Watercolour and pencil drawings of birds, mammals and boats of the Shetland Islands, with some drawings of plants of England and Scotland (1918-1974)

Grey Geese, Scotland

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Muriel Helen Dawson was born in Canterbury, New Zealand in 1897 and came to England in 1913 where she enrolled as a student at the Richmond School of Art. By 1918 she was at Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, attending the Southend School of Art, and later that year moved to London where she studied at the Royal College of Art.

Charadrius hiaticula, common ringed plover

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Dawson moved to the Shetland Islands in the late 1950’s, where she sketched and painted prodigiously, amassing a collection of sketchbooks of drawings of mainly birds, mammals and landscapes. All of these, along with some earlier work, were bequeathed to the Natural History Museum upon her death in 1974.

To see more of Muriel's work please visit the NHM Picture Library

Feast of St. Stephen, Sussex, England

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To coincide with the new theme of Australian 18th century artwork in the Images of Nature Gallery, our Special Collections Librarian Lisa Di Tommaso and Aboriginal Australian artist Daniel Boyd will be taking part in a Nature Live event on Tuesday 7th February.

The Museum holds in its collections fascinating drawings of the Australian landscape and the people of the Eora Nation, seen through the eyes of British settlers. It gives a rare insight into the establishment of the first British penal colony in Port Jackson, from 1788 onwards, and the flora, fauna and people they encountered.

Portrait of an aboriginal man named Balloderree, from the Watling Collection
by Port Jackson painter

Image No.  012058

This event is free and suitable for adults.

The talk begins at 14.30 in the Attenborough Studio in the Darwin Centre.

The brand new glossy Winter 2012 edition of the Museum's magazine Evolve is now available to buy.

The Library & Archives collections and staff feature in at least three articles!

The Birds of America - In October 2011 the NHM published a reproduction of John James Audubon's huge work The Birds of America. Learn more about this record breaking book and its author.

Hoping great things.... the search for early humans - With the 100th anniversary approaching, Karolyn Shindler has been researching the collections relating to the Piltdown Man and Sir Arthur Smith Woodward. This is the first of four forthcoming articles.

Images of Nature: The First Fleet collection - To coincide with the February 2012 change of theme for the Images of Nature art gallery, 18th century Australian artwork, this article is all about the theme, the artists and the artwork.

Our Special Collections Librarian, Lisa Di Tommaso has written a publication The Art of the First Fleet all about the unqiue First Fleet artwork collections held in the NHM Library & Archives. Available now from the NHM bookshop.

Histoire naturelle : ou, Exposition des morceaux, les mieux choisis pour servir à l'étude de la minéralogie et de la cristallographie           

Swebach Desfontaines, François Louis fl. 1769

This exquisite collection of watercolour drawings on paper is the result of Francious Louis Swebach Desfontaines own project.  His aim was to produce a publication of ten colour plates each depicting sixteen mineral  specimens set into boxwork cabinets.

The collection of plates held in the Natural History Museum Library, were to be used in Swebach's completed publication.  The collection contains original drawings for 10 prints with alternative versions. These drawings are accompanied by one page of text.  This prospectus for the proposed publication is the only copy which survives today.  The final project never came to fruition as Swebach noted at the close of his introduction, "the revolution prevented the publication of this work".

The drawings show Swebach's excellent ability to draw minerals on paper with meticulous accuracy and attention to detail.  Some plates are original drawings whilst others are engravings, however it is difficult to determine one from the other as an elaborate border was painted round each of them.  All are hand coloured.  To enhance the colour of some of the drawings Swebach has used shavings from the actual minerals

Some of the drawings appear to be direct replicas of those used in the famous book by Jean Fabien Gautier D'Agoty: Histoire Naturelle Règne Minéral (1781).  This is of little surprise as Swebach worked in the Gautier D'Agoty studio in Paris.  He was employed to carry on the work of D'Agoty on Histoire Naturelle Règne Minéral after his death.  In 1776 Gautier d'Agoty embarked on publishing a volume of the mineral kingdom; Histoire Naturelle Règne Minéral.  This publication was one of the first to be illustrated with printed colours. It consisted of a collection of colour printed plates with an explanatory text written by Jean Baptiste Louis Romé de l'Isle (1736-1790), the eminent crystallographer. The book was available by subscription, and was to be published in eight or ten instalments or 'decades'. Prior to his death, Gautier d'Agoty had completed just three of these 'decades'. Swebach then completed another four decades for Mme Gautier d'Agoty. The last, the seventh, is so rare that only two copies are known.

Swebach was an acquaintance of Jean Baptiste Louis Romé de l'Isle, and had assisted him in a project to make terracotta crystal models.  It is thought Romé de l'Isle may have recommended Swebach to Mme Gautier d'Agoty. 

What was unique about Swebachs publication compared to D'Agoty's was that Swebach hand coloured all his plates, rather than using colour printing.

Swebach was a self taught artist, sculptor, engraver, painter and mineralogist.  Little of his background is known.  He was born in Toul, France in the later half of the eighteenth century.  By 1780 he had moved to Paris, working as an engraver.

It is not known what happened to Swebach during the French Revolution.  It is a mystery whether or not Swebach became a victim of the revolutionary executions.  Nothing is known of him after 1792.