Prior to reading Richard Fortey’s Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum, I honestly cannot recall audibly exclaiming “Bravo!” upon completing a reading of any book. Such is the effect of Professor Fortey’s prose – it wraps one up in a continuous flow of fascinating scientific insights, superbly wrought historical vignettes, and exceptionally human biographical portraits such that upon completing it the first emotion that one feels is the wish for it not to have come to an end.

With a style that is at once both learned and familiar, Professor Fortey leads the reader not only through the public galleries of the London’s magnificent Natural History Museum but back into the labyrinth of unseen passages, scholars’ chambers, research labs, storerooms, and other hidden places. Along the way, not only are the various areas of research undertaken by museum staff, both past and present, discussed, but a generous amount of legend and lore are also disclosed such as would only be known to someone who has spent an entire professional life as a member of the museum’s scientific staff – and be assured, not all of it is of an entirely scientific nature (wink, wink). Read the rest of this entry »

Back in 2007 my family and I had the good fortune to visit the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria during its exhibition of artifacts from the Titanic. The exhibit was, without fear of hyperbole, extraordinary. Through the masterful curatorial skills with which the exhibition was planned, designed, and presented, the entire historic portrait of the Titanic, including the events of the voyage, sinking, and aftermath, was brought into clear focus for myself, my wife, and our then seven-year-old daughter. Although each of us had not only considerably different levels of interest in the subject, not to mention widely differing amounts of previous knowledge about it, we all came away from it with a better understanding of what had occurred, why, and its historical importance. Due to its multi-layered and highly effective style of presentation, memories of this marvelous exhibition were brought quickly to mind during my recent reading of John van Wyhe’s The Darwin Experience: The Story of the Man and His Theory of Evolution. Read the rest of this entry »