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The Hugh Miller collection (mainly NMS G.1859.33) held at the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, consists of 591 palaeobotanical specimens, 54 of which are of type and/or figured status. A preliminary assessment of this collection, in the light of renewed interest in Hugh Miller's works in the bicentenary of his birth (2002), has provided new...
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... seems strange to one who derives his supply of domestic fuel from the Dalkeith and Falkirk coal-fields, that the Carboniferous flora could ever have been described as devoid of trees. (Miller 1857, p. 182.) ...
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... as: 'A man of the people, he was understood by the people; and he wished it to be so'. However, it is only apt that the last word on the subject is Miller's, and his comment on the science of palaeobotany was that: 'We see only detached bits of that green web which has covered our earth since the dry land first appeared...' (Miller 1857, p. 402 Fig. 119 (left-hand figure). Fig. ...
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... was understood by the people; and he wished it to be so'. However, it is only apt that the last word on the subject is Miller's, and his comment on the science of palaeobotany was that: 'We see only detached bits of that green web which has covered our earth since the dry land first appeared...' (Miller 1857, p. 402 Fig. 119 (left-hand figure). Fig. ...
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... eathiensis (Richards1884) from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian), Eathie, Ross & Cromarty, Scotland. Figured as Zamia by Miller (1857), Fig. 133 Fig. 140 (right-hand figure). Described as Marattiopsis boweri by Seward (1911), p. 670. Accompanying old museum label identifies speci- men as Nilssonia ornentalis, Heer. Fig. 139. Fig. 140 (left-hand figure). ...
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... eathiensis (Richards1884) from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian), Eathie, Ross & Cromarty, Scotland. Figured as Zamia by Miller (1857), Fig. 133 Fig. 140 (right-hand figure). Described as Marattiopsis boweri by Seward (1911), p. 670. Accompanying old museum label identifies speci- men as Nilssonia ornentalis, Heer. Fig. 139. Fig. 140 (left-hand figure). ...
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... eathiensis (Richards1884) from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian), Eathie, Ross & Cromarty, Scotland. Figured as Zamia by Miller (1857), Fig. 133 Fig. 140 (right-hand figure). Described as Marattiopsis boweri by Seward (1911), p. 670. Accompanying old museum label identifies speci- men as Nilssonia ornentalis, Heer. Fig. 139. Fig. 140 (left-hand figure). ...
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... eathiensis (Richards1884) from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian), Eathie, Ross & Cromarty, Scotland. Figured as Zamia by Miller (1857), Fig. 133 Fig. 140 (right-hand figure). Described as Marattiopsis boweri by Seward (1911), p. 670. Accompanying old museum label identifies speci- men as Nilssonia ornentalis, Heer. Fig. 139. Fig. 140 (left-hand figure). ...
Citations
... It survives only in part, but a coloured plaster cast accompanies the specimen. It bears numbers in dribbly red paint which, in our experience, characterise (at least) the Hugh Miller specimens used by the Cambridge palaeobotanist A. C. Seward in his work on the Jurassic plants of Scotland (Anderson 2005 Peach did seemingly collect at Eathie, on the evidence of a pterosaur bone whose label has been identified as being in his writing (Steel and O'Sullivan 2014). The 1850 date on the specimen is certainly consistent with his move to Peterhead in 1849, from which Cromarty was easily accessible by coastal steamer or cargo smack. ...
... Plant fossils from Burdiehouse had been publicized by the geologist and newspaper editor Hugh Miller (1802–1856). Seward would later formally describe Miller's Jurassic plant fossils from Sutherland (Anderson, 2005). The trio then continued to the village of Roslin and the mediaeval Roslyn Chapel, famous for its stone carvings. ...
The archival papers of the eminent petrologist Alfred Harker span his entire geological career of over 60 years. These are held by the Archive of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences (University of Cambridge). Harker was associated with the Department of Geology, the Woodwardian Museum and post-1904, the Sedgwick Memorial Museum. Importantly, his meticulously labelled notebooks provide an unprecedented insight into his development as a field and laboratory scientist. They chart Harker's beginnings as a fossil collector and observer of sedimentary stratigraphy on the North Yorkshire coast, his trips to Wales and Devon with the Sedgwick Club, and his later work in the English Lake District with his friend and colleague John. E. Marr. This paper examines in particular Harker's suite of 20 notebooks kept up until 1894, including his trip to Edinburgh in August 1892. This visit introduced the young scientist to the geology of Scotland for the first time. An overview of Harker's experience and contemporary contacts suggests some reasons why Sir Archibald Geikie later invited him to join the Scottish Survey staff in 1895.
... Miller was certainly a very good geologist, as an observer in the field or of the minute detail of his fossils, but he published rather little formal academic geology, contrary to what one might imagine from his reputation. Therefore, how one regards Miller's actual contribution to geology – or rather palaeontology – is critically dependent on how one defines science (Miller's contribution is notably discussed by Oldroyd, 1996; see also Andrews, 1982; Waterston, 2002a, b; Hudson, 2003; Janvier, 2003; Morrison-Low & Nuttall, 2003; Secord, 2003; Taylor, 2003; Torrens, 2003; Trewin, 2003; Anderson, 2005). Indeed, from the point of view of the metropolitan élite of the Geological Society of London, Miller would simply have been yet another talented provincial collector, if one who was rather good at popularizing the science (Knell, 2000, pp. ...
This material has been published in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 117, 2006, 85-98, the only definitive repository of the content that has been certified and accepted after peer review. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by The Geological Society of London. Copyright © 2000 The Geological Society of London. KNELL, S. J. & TAYLOR, M. A. 2006. Hugh Miller: fossils, landscape and literary geology. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 117, 85–98. The bicentenary of the birth of Hugh Miller (1802–1856) in Cromarty (in northern Scotland) has enabled a reappraisal of this fine spare-time geologist, in turn stonemason and banker, and eventually Edinburgh newspaper editor. In Cromarty he had the usual advantages and limitations of a local collector far from metropolitan centres. But Miller was different from other collectors: he was author of classic books such as The Old Red Sandstone, making famous the Old Red Sandstone fishes and Jurassic marine fossils of the area around Cromarty. Miller’s ironically titled autobiography My Schools and Schoolmasters recommended geology as an improving recreation. His writings are suffused with the thrill of discovery and the wonder and beauty of fossils, inspiring future geologists such as John Muir (1838–1914), pioneer of environmental conservation, and George Jennings Hinde (1839–1918), microfossil researcher. In his often autobiographical writings Miller made geology an integral part of the world as he saw it: he was not ‘just’ a ‘popularizer’, but (as he always wanted) a literary man in the all-encompassing Victorian manner. Geology merged with local history and folklore – all ‘libraries’ of the past. But his writings remain rooted in insightful observation – as scientist and poet – of specimen and scenery, from microscope slide to landscape, and in careful reconstruction, for instance, of fossil animals from fragmentary remains. When Miller dealt with wider issues of God in creation and the truths of geology, he deployed his fossils, as in Footprints of the Creator (1849) which attacked the reheated Lamarckian evolutionism of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844). But, contrary to the common misconception that he was driven to suicide by a conflict between science and religion, Miller simply saw these as different facets of the same truth. Indeed, he notably defended geology against religious literalists. Miller’s fossil collection is now mostly in the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, with some specimens in the new Hugh Miller museum, Cromarty, which derives from that founded by his son, also called Hugh (1850–1896), a professional geologist with the Geological Survey. This appraisal reveals further depths to Hugh Miller’s appreciation of geological specimens, and to the significance of his surviving collection. Miller’s relationship with the material world of objects shows remarkable consistency and an unwillingness to compartmentalize: Miller’s fossils exemplify the deep continuity of his world.
The University Museum of Zoology (Cambridge) holds Charles Darwin's collection of microscope slide dissections prepared during
his studies of living barnacles. This collection was assembled through an extensive network of museum contacts and amateur
collectors. We examine in detail the role of one of these collectors, Charles W. Peach, a coastguard in the Customs Service.
Detailed study of the slide collection reveals an internal chronology of manufacture against which timelines of Peach and
Darwin's activities can be compared. Four distinct phases of slide fixative are recognized and subsequent alterations to Darwin's
original collection can be demonstrated. The internal chronology also reveals that Darwin dissected and mounted barnacles
as he received material, rather than working systematically through taxonomic groups. Aside from Peach, other suppliers of
barnacles included Samuel Stutchbury, Joseph Hooker and Robert Damon.
