museums and geology The science of geology has been associated with museums and collections since its inception. When geology became a recognizable discipline in the early nineteenth century the principal interest was in stratification. At this time William Smith, a relatively plain and unlettered man, utilizing his collection as a physical model of the strata as he knew them, proved the correlational value of fossils without recourse to complex taxonomies. More than a decade later, Georges Cuvier, who in Paris had established the world's most important museum of natural history, independently reached the same conclusions with the help of Alexandre Brongniart. But here he founded this correlation on a superior understanding of zoology and in the process laid the foundations for palaeontology. Modern mineralogy also developed as a discipline of the cabinet.
These examples of the geological museum in its nascency give hints of aspects that remain important in its modern role. In some respects the museum can be viewed as a three-dimensional publication, but with the difference that the collection is never a fixed entity: it is always being developed and can be manipulated in various ways. Many museum collections, such as those gathered by geological survey organizations, are so vast and data-rich that to explore them is akin to fieldwork but with the advantage of being able to compare specimens that were collected from distant localities and at various times. There are also facilities for the scientific preparation and analysis that may be necessary to provide basic information or identify species.
Collections are also a flexible resource for research and communication. William Smith, for example, believed that the pursuit of geology did not require an understanding of ‘hard names’. Collections can talk to the public in ways that are not available to other media: the power of the real object in itself is very persuasive. Yet museums are also places where complex matters such as systematics, biomechanics, and crystallography are investigated. Much of this information is of fundamental importance, underpinning other more complex concepts and interpretation.
The concept of the geological museum is undoubtedly a product of its history: it is defined by the type of geology that was being undertaken in the early nineteenth century and the ways in which governments developed the institutional infrastructure of science. Museums remain wedded to the materials that were then the building-blocks of the science: fossils, minerals, and rocks; materials that remain at the heart of amateur activity and provide a bond between the professional and the amateur. In addition, collections may hold samples from industrial processes or scientific analysis, drill cores, meteorites, fakes and forgeries, archives of notebooks and correspondence, and historical geological equipment. Museums are, however, much more than collections, of equal importance is the expertise and equipment they hold. The museum geologist may be the only publicly accessible scientist or geologist in an area. Many museums have laboratories where fossils are extracted, minerals analysed, rocks sectioned, and conservation undertaken. They are, in addition, cen-tres for expertise in the care of collections and science communication.
It would be wrong, however, to view geological collections as simply the products and materials of science. Inevitably over time they also become the products of history and are capable of saying much about how geological investigations were undertaken in the past. That past shows that these objects had a wide range of cultural roles in, for example, patronage, individual and civic rivalry, reputation-building, and the local economy. Today they reveal much about scientific method and scientific culture. They are as likely to have arisen from an amateur field trip, a house extension, a holiday excursion, or a piece of research. Indeed, much that is held in the world's museums has yet to come under scientific scrutiny, and such collections provide a unique resource for future discovery. The first conodont animal, for example, was discovered in a museum where it had lain unnoticed for decades.
In varying degrees museums have changed with the times. It is, however, difficult to predict the content of any museum. A small multidisciplinary local museum may have a geological collection of international importance and innovative displays. Other larger and more prestigious organizations may have little more than a systematic arrangement. Such things are determined by who that museum sees as its audience, as well as by its governance and funding. Museums are run by universities, local and national governments, and independent trusts, and each views them differently.
Natural history museums have been at the cutting edge of attempts to make museums more accessible: to communicate more effectively. Academic purists no longer hold sway, and galleries now roar to the sound of robotic dinosaurs and sparkle with minerals presented as works of natural art. Museums have recognized that changing their visitors' attitudes to the subject (inspiring them) may be more important than imparting facts. Much of their inspiration comes from viewing real specimens. At the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff and Sharjah Natural History Museum in the United Arab Emirates real objects are placed to the fore with rich multimedia displays in support. Other museums, such as the Senckenburg Museum in Frankfurt, allow fabulous fossils, such as those of Solnhofen and Messel, to speak for themselves. At the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, the dinosaur exhibits are
in situ and constantly under excavation. More and more museums throughout the world are introducing discovery centres where visitors can handle and examine real specimens assisted by trained staff. A display of an unusual type is the Géodrome, 120 km south of Paris. Here, 800 tonnes of rock and mineral specimens from various parts of France are set out in a ‘geological garden’ in the shape of the country.
There are other museums, such as the Natural History Museum in London and the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung, Taiwan, where the pursuit of communication objectives has moved the museum away from displaying large quantities of real objects. Here interactivity and carefully constructed didactic exhibits, which owe much to the science centre movement, fill the galleries. If the display of fewer specimens is seen as a loss, there is consolation in the fact that large-scale geological features can now be represented in facsimile. In the Hall of Planet Earth at the American Museum of Natural History, for example, latex casts taken from the Grand Canyon, the San Andreas fault, Vesuvius, the Swiss Alps, and Siccar Point in Scotland are on display. The scope of the displays is also becoming wider: the atmosphere, the oceans, and environmental issues are now usually included as well as the solid Earth. But, regardless of the general approach, one theme is prominent in museum galleries throughout the world and that is dinosaurs.
In addition to exhibitions, museums provide a wide variety of public programmes. The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, for example, gives visitors the opportunity of taking part in dinosaur excavations. The Natural History Museum in London arranges laboratory visits, tours, and other activities. Formal and informal education programmes for children and adults exist in many museums and in many instances form a link between the museum and work in the field. Where a geologist is available, a museum will generally provide support for local geological activities, but not all museums with geological collections have geological staff.
Many geological specimens will rapidly deteriorate without proper care, but volunteers should be aware that hasty or ill-informed curation can be even more destructive. There are relatively few national or international groups concerned with such issues; the Geological Curators' Group of the Geological Society in the UK is probably the best known.
Simon J. Knell
