| Description | Hand drawn plans relating to the work of RH Burne and Peter Purves preparting the layout of the cetacean anatomical specimens in the Whale Hall, 1935-1939.
1) Pencil plan showing the layout of display cases within the different areas of the exhibition, with scale. The areas are labelled skin, sense organs, locomation, nervous system, circulation, digestion, excretion, mammay organs, respiration. Display cases within these areas are labelled with the specimens and other items they contain. The plan is annotated with various measurements and figures. 79.5x34cm.
2) Pencil, pen and ink plan showing the layout of display cases within the different areas of the exhibition. This appears to be a development of the previous pencil plan, including more measurements. Annotations in pencil. 87.5x32.8cm.
3) Double-sided plan. 100.5x33cm. On one side is a plan in pencil showing the layout of display cases within the different areas of the exhibition, with measurements and scale. On the other side is a pencil, pen and ink, and watercolour plan, with scale (graphite pencil drawn plans and annotations; black ink labelling; blue, yellow, red watercolour wash; blue coloured pencil. A handwritten note in pencil reads 'reprod. might be narrower to make more room for mammary spec. if we find Finner mammary cleft'. |
| AdminHistory | In 1935 RH Burne joined the British Museum (Natural History) as a voluntary scientific worker and undertook to prepare dissectionsillustrating cetacean anatomy for exhibition in the Whale Hall. He not only produced a noteworthy series of preparations, but also made coloured explanatory diagrams, arranged the layout of the exhibits and wrote most of the labels. The outbreak of war in 1939 interrupted the task and later impairment of his sight made it impossible for him to continue. PE Purves assisted Burne prior to the war and was subsequently responsible for arranging the display of the specimens, diagrams and labels according to the prepared plan.
(Information taken from 'Handbook of RH Burne's Cetacean dissections' by FC Fraser and HW Parker, British Museum (Natural History), Department of Zoology, 1952) |