Museum of Economic Geology
Extract from: Bailey, E.B. Geological Survey of Great Britain, London T. Murby, 1952.
Having successfully launched his scheme for a geological survey of the kingdom, De la Beche proceeded to point out to the Chancellor of the Exchequer the advantages that would accrue to the country from possession of a museum for display of rocks and minerals of economic significance. The suggestion was approved in 1837, and a building in Craig's Court, Whitehall, adjoining Scotland Yard, was assigned for Survey offices and museum. The latter was opened in 1841 under the title of Museum of Economic Geology. Its first Curator, also Chemist, was Richard Phillips, appointed along with an Assistant Curator in 1839. Phillips was one of the founder members of the Geological Society, and at the time of his death, which occurred on the eve of the opening of the Jermyn Street Museum in 1851, had come to be President of the Chemical Society. Phillips was furnished with a laboratory at the Museum, where the public might obtain analyses of rocks, minerals and soils. Although De la Beche was Director of the new Museum,, this institution was administered by the Office of Woods, Forests, etc., and not by the Ordnance Survey, to which for the time being the Geological Survey still remained attached.
The exhibits were all of economic appeal: building stones, including the specimens collected by the Parliament Commission, ornamental stones, marbles, granites, serpentines; plasters, tiles, pottery, earthenware ; ores of the metals, with Devon and Cornwall strongly represented, but with many other examples, British and foreign ; metallurgical products such as castings, electrotypes, gun barrels; coal and other fuels.
Extract on the formation of the Museum of Economic Geology from Flett, J.S. The first hundred years of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. London:HMSO, 1937.
To this investigation, however, we are largely indebted for the establishment of the Museum of Practical Geology, for the large number of specimens of building stones collected by the Commission of 1838, and tested by them, was eminently suitable for preservation. De la Beche had previously made the suggestion that a Museum should be attached to the Geological Survey, in which rocks and minerals which had a bearing on the applications of geology to industry should be exhibited. This suggestion was approved and in 1837 a building in Craig’s Court, Whitehall, was obtained for Survey Offices and Museum.
The extensive collections already made by De la Beche served to illustrate many useful applications of geology, and in a short time, by private generosity and the work of official collectors, the exhibited series grew to considerable dimensions. The Museum was established in 1837 but not opened to the public till 1841, and about the same time Richard Phillips was attached to the service as a chemist to make analyses of minerals and rocks. He acted also as Curator of the Museum. Phillips was one of the founders or original members of the Geological Society of London. He was well known for his researches in chemistry and became President of the Chemical Society. His brother, William Phillips, was a distinguished geologist and wrote standard works on geology and mineralogy. Richard Phillips died in 1851 and was succeeded as Curator of the Museum by Trenham Reeks, who had joined the Survey in the same year as Phillips (1839).
An active coadjutor in the equipment and arrangement of the new Museum was Thomas Sopwith. He was a land and mineral surveyor and he brought out a descriptive account of the Museum in 1843. He took much interest in mining geology and ultimately became Crown Agent for the Mines in the Forest of Dean. The making of geological models was a work in which he specially excelled, and he prepared a large model of the coalfield of the Forest of Dean on the scale of 5 inches to a mile and another on the scale of 10 inches to a mile which is still preserved and shows wonderful skill and knowledge of the local geology. Sopwith also made small wooden models to illustrate geological structures, such as folds and faults, and the effects of surface configuration on the outcrops of stratified rocks. These models are still used in many colleges and schools to illustrate geological lectures. Sopwith appears to have had a considerable practice as a civil engineer and a surveyor of mines. His geological knowledge was of a high standard and he was a prominent member of the Geological Society. Apparently he was never a regular member of De la Beche’s staff, but as he held an appointment under the Crown Estates he seems to have considered himself as semi-officially attached to the Geological Survey and he gave very hearty support to De la Beche’s schemes.
Sopwith’s ‘Account of the Museum of Economic Geology’ was published by John Murray and gives a full description not only of the purposes of the Museum but also of its principal exhibits. The striking fact is that almost nothing was shown that had not a practical bearing. For example, there was no collection of classified minerals or rocks and no stratigraphical series of fossils. The collection of building stones, ornamental stones, marbles, granites and serpentines occupied a principal place on the ground floor. Along with these were exhibits of cements, plasters, tiles, pottery, earthenware and other manufactured products. On the first gallery were shown British and foreign ores of the metals, coals and other fuels, with specimens of lodes, veins and other mineral deposits. In this collection tin, Copper, iron and coal held a principal place, as illustrating British industries. Many of the specimens came from Cornwall, Devon and South Wales and were evidently collected during the survey of those districts, but generous donors had also presented large numbers of specimens of foreign ores. Among others, the Imperial Mining Institute of Russia had sent a varied series of Russian exhibits. Scattered through the Museum were examples of metallurgical products, such as castings, electrotypes, gun barrels, etc., and objects of art such as encaustic tiles, statuary, pottery and cameos.
Adjacent to the Museum of Economic Geology there was a Mining Records Office. T. B. Jordan, the officer in charge, was a skilled mechanic and instrument maker and had been Secretary of the Royal Polytechnic Society of Cornwall. Apparently the initial impetus for the establishment of the Mining Records Office came from a great mining disaster that happened in Co. Durham in 1836, when water from old workings burst into a mine and many miners lost their lives. At the British Association Meeting in Newcastle in 1838 Sopwith read a paper urging the importance of collecting and preserving the plans of abandoned mines. A resolution in support of this proposal was carried in the Council of the British Association and an influential committee appointed to submit the matter to the Government. It was urged that similar measures were already being taken by the Board of Woods and Forests in the case of the coal mines of the Forest of Dean, and in Northumberland by the Natural History Society of Newcastle. In March 1839 it was decided to place the work in the hands of De la Beche, and Jordan was appointed Keeper of Mining Records in October 1840.
At the same time it was decided that the Mining Records Office should contain an exhibit of models of coalfields, of various kinds of mines, and of the apparatus used in dressing mineral ores. Apparently Jordan had a workshop connected with the Museum in which models were prepared. In addition to Sopwith’s models of the Forest of Dean coalfield, already mentioned, there were models of Dolcoath mine and of Northumbrian coal mines. Sopwith contributed a model of the Alston Moor lead-mining district and other models were presented. Some of them were of an elaborate construction showing shafts, levels and pumps. There were also models of many kinds of mining machinery, buddles, stamps, tilt hammers and jigs. Among this collection Ramsay’s original model of the Geology of the Island of Arran makes a somewhat incongruous appearance. A few maps and plans of mining districts were shown, and a series of sections illustrating the geology of railway-cuttings newly made for the rapidly spreading railway lines of England. A special committee of the British Association had been appointed to get together as large a collection of these railway sections as possible, and the sections which this committee collected were deposited in the Museum.
Although no special exhibits were provided to show the connexion of geology with agriculture, it was announced that Mr. Phillips, Curator of the Museum, would make analyses of rocks and soils at moderate charges.