Number 5 - Geological Curators Group

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The known contents of the Museum to this datecertainly bear out the early attention paid togeological material by the membership.In 1846 Henry Clifton Sorby (1826-1908), thepioneer of the microscopic study of rocks,visited Cheltenham and what must have been theMuseum of the Institution (Bishop 1984,pp.76-77). Such visitors will have furtherpublicised the contents and value of the Museum.Another development in 1846 was of mare ominoussignificance for the future of the CheltenhamInstitution: the formation of the first FieldClub in the Cotswolds. This arose from thatsocial innovation of the previous decade,1836-1846, the coming of the railways (Clinker1964), which had major effects on both theInstitution and the study of geology in thearea. The new railways yielded an enormousnumber of new sections to supplement thoseprovided by building operations in the richlyfossiliferous local Jurassic rocks ofCheltenham, as well as the means by which thegeologists could reach these sections to studythem. Excavation of the Great Western Railwaybranch line from Gloucester to Cheltenhamyielded Liassic fossils which the residentengineer, Richard Boxall Grantham FGS(1805-1891) presented, with other specimens, tothe Geological Society of London between 1839and 1842 (see 'Lists of Donations' inpublications of the Geological Society).The new social mobility provided by the railwayshad other results, for the CotteswoldNaturalists' Field Club, newly founded in 1846,was soon to take over and expand the originalrole of the CLPI in the local encouragement ofnatural science (Torrens 1982), notably in theorganisation of field trips. From 1846 onwardsthe days of the CLPI were clearly numbered bysuch competition, as happened elsewhere for muchthe same reasons (Allen 1976). The CNFC,founded to study the 'Catteswald district andits neighbourhood', is one of the first Britishlocal natural history and archaeologicalsocieties which superseded these earlier'Institutions'. Its history has been related byLncy (1888) and Fletcher (1946). Its foundermembers included Thomas Wright and Sir ThomasTancred (after whom the Jurassic bivalveTancredia is named). Several important donorsto collections in Cheltenham, notably LinsdallRichardson to CHLGM, used the Club's Proceedingsas a vehicle for their researches. Othermembers at various times included P. B. Brodie,3. Lycett, R. Etberidge and both James andSydney Buckman. The Club specifically decidednot to form a museum of its own and so anydonations made to it (such as the CornfordCollection; see p.201) were promptly passed onto local museums.At about the same time as the CNFC was founded,problems of finance started to emerge at theCLPI. Already in 1845 'the funds arising fromAnnual Subscriptions and other sources barelysufficed for the current expenditure of theInstitution' (12th ReDort CLPI, p.11) and thiswas to become a recurrent theme. By early 1846the Institution's dynamic geologist/botanistJames Buckman had left to become Secretary andCurator to the Birmingham PhilosophicalInstitution (13th ReDort CLPI, pp.4, 12),starting his new career as a professionalscientist (Torrens 1988a). A potentialreplacement was Robert Etheridge (1819-1903) whobecame a new CLPI Subscriber in 1845 (d.p.16) and joined its Council in 1846 (14thReDort CLPI, p.5). He was then a partner in adrapery business with his brother in thePromenade. His meteoric rise as a geologistsoon afterwards elsewhere was clearly in greatmeasure inspired by the Cheltenham Institution,and Messrs Buckman and Wright's own examples(Gheltenham Looker On, 26 December 1903,p.1289). But he was soon appointed Curator ofthe Bristol Institution, in January 1851 (Crane1985, p.181, before becoming in 1856 one of theassistant naturalists at the Museum of PracticalGeology in London (Flett 1937, p.69) - havingjoined, like Buckman, the new generation ofprofessional scientists. Etheridge continuedhis connection with Cheltenham by regular returnvisits to the town as a lecturer and as a guideto the local geology in the field. It was thisknowledge of Cotswold geology which had soimpressed Murchison and was instrumental ingetting Etheridge his post in London (Geikie1875, v01.2, p.259).With two such significant defections from theranks of Cheltenham geology, its core hadcertainly now been significantly disrupted.The first local Secretary (June 1847) of thenewly formed Palaeontographical Society was theCheltenbam surgeon Walter Cary. By June 1851 hewas replaced by Thomas Wright(Palaeontographical Society archives).The next CLPI President, elected in 1847, wasthe most famous geologist to have been connectedwith Cheltenham, Dr Thomas Wright (1809-1884),who was a surgeon at the local hospital (Glos.N. 3, 1887, p.662; Bell 1981). Wrightproudly proclaimed his presidency on the titlepage of his first geological publication in bookform, the third edition of G. F. Richardson's(1796-1848) textbook which Wright enlarged andrevised under the title of An introduction toWbgy (Richardson 1851). Wright's firstpublications, befitting a medical man, were inthe field of comparative anatomy. Hiscontributions to stratigraphy and palaeontologybegan in 1850 (Midlands Naturalist, 7, 1884,pp.341-344), and his contributions to Cotswoldgeology were mostly published in the Proceedinesof the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club andthe Monoera~hs of the Palaeantoera~hical%s&y. Prior to his Presidency, Wright hadlong been a lecturer to the CLPI, and - as wehave seen - was also engaged in the curation ofthe Institution's collection. But more and moreafter 1850 the focus of his activities moved tothe national, rather than local, level and theCLPI became more peripheral to him. However,Wright did act as the local Cheltenham Secretaryfor the Palaeontographical Society from1851-1870. The marvellous personal fossilcollection he made was dispersed by the dealerF. H. Butler (Cleevely 1983, p.319). It wasoffered for sale soon after his death throughhis old friend Robert Etheridge ([Etheridge1884]), when it was noted to contain about16,000 specimens but with no detailedcatalogue. It contained all the specimensfigured in Wright's Monoera~hs. It was snappedup and then dispersed by Butler.
1'ThomasSale at hisJenkinsBEGS to inform the Scientific Public, that he has onANTEDILUVIAN REPOSITORYLECKHAMPZON ROAD. CHELTENHAMA lame and interesting Collection of FOSSIL REMAINS-His Specimens of SAURIAIJS, and of the rarer Shellsfrom the Lias and Oolite of the Vicinity, are wellworthy of the attention of Collectors.. J. also deals in Old Coins, Tokens, RomanPottery,and Archaeological Curiosities in general.'(Cheltenham Looker On, 9 August 1856, p. 764)Fig. 6. A receipt dated September 1851 forfossils bought by Thomas Wright for theInstitution from the dealer Thomas Jenkinsof Leckhampton (Cheltenham Public Library).From about 1850 the main method of adding to theMuseum's collection of fossils seems to havebeen by purchase (e.g. 17th - 20th Reaortsm). The receipt for one of these survives(Fig.6) to demonstrate the involvement of bothThomas Wright as purchaser and oneThomas Jenkins (c.1793-1868) as vendor. Jenkinswas paid to 'clean' fossils in the CLPI~ollection as early as April 1846 (letter ofW. H. Gomonde, 23 April 1846, CLPI Archives) andearlier, on 22 October 1842, Jenkins was paid10s 3d from the CLPI Museum account for'arranging fossils' (CLPI Accounts 1841-1845).THE JENXINS FAMILY:CHELTENHAMCOMMERCIAL DEALERS INThomas Jenkins is the Cheltenham dealer whocontinued the tradition of selling geologicalspecimens started in Cheltenham by John Mawe andAnthony Tatlow. Mawe and Tatlow's originalestablishment had been sold up in 1843, whileJenkins was based at Leckhampton. He is firstheard of at Leckhampton in 1842 when Buckman(1842, p.60) mentions Mr Jenkins' 'Antediluvianand Fossil Remains' repository, and its 'mosthonest and intelligent' proprietor as havinginterests in botany, geology and antiquities.The first is explained by Jenkins beingessentially a market gardener who also dealtcomercially in fossils and antiquities. In1851, the year of the above sale to theCheltenham Institution, the CotteswoldNaturalists' Field Club also visited thisLeckhampton dealer (Baker 1853, p.101).In 1856 both Jenkins and his son William(c.1828-1882) contributed to the temporaryGeological Museum set up in the CLPI for thebenefit of those attending the BritishAssociation for the Advancement of Sciencemeeting held in Cheltenham in August 1856 (Anon.1856, p.14; see p.187). At the same time theyinserted the advertisement transcribed below(Cheltenham Looker On, 9 April 1856, p.764) inthe hope of sales to the 1,109 delegates (Anon.1856, p.8).One result of this advertisement may have beenthe sale of an Ichthvosaurus sp. to the Museumof Practical Geology in 1856 (Rolfe d. 1988,p.147). P. B. Brodie (1858, p.88) noted that'many of the characteristic fossils of theCotswolds may he purchased at a moderate rate ofJenkins, a nurseryman on the right hand side ofthe road leading to Leckhampton' fromCheltenham. Between 1857 and 1860 Jenkins madefurther frequent sales to the Museum ofPractical Geology in London (Cleevely 1983,p.164), probably through the intercessionoftheir recently arrived assistantRohert Etheridge, late of Cheltenham.Jenkins' portrait was painted in 1856 by thesixteen year old Briton Riviere (1840-1920) in acharacteristic pose with Upper Lias ammonite(Fig.7; Cheltenham Art Gallery coll. P 1919,209 A) (see Herdman 1931, p.24). He died in1868 (buried 7 Octoher 1868, aged 75;Leckhampton Burial Register, Glos. Record OfficeIN 1117) and his son William in 1882 (buried 18February 1882, aged 54). Fossil Street inLeckhampton is thought to derive its name fromtheir activities. William continued to supplyfossils until at least 1877 when he supplied thepresumed original of Ammonites cheltiensisMurcbison, 1834, to the British Museum (NaturalHistory) (BMNH C74955a - see Spath 1938,pp.46-47, pl.1, fig.3; Phillips 1987, p.58).In 1947 a grandson of William (A. H. W. Jenkinsof Surhiton) offered a number of his Cheltenhamfossils, still wrapped in 1870's newspapers, toCheltenham Town Museum (letter dated 8 July 1947in CHLGM archives) but it is not known if theofEer was ever taken up.To illustrate that purchasing scientificallyaccurate fossils from dealers can be a hazardousactivity, Jenkins must he implicated in theproblems of the hrachiopod subspecies Waldheimavar. leckham~tonensis WalkerDavidson, 1878 (vo1.4, p.185). This hrachiopodwas claimed to originate from the LeckhamptonInferior Oolite when in fact it had come fromthe Great Oalite of the Bath area (S. S. Buckman1899, p.9). Jenkins' part in the story isdocumented in a letter from Charles Upton (died1927) to J. W. Tutcher (1858-1951) of 6 March1922 (copy in BRSMG Geology File TUT 61/15).Upton was curator at Gloucester Museum whichthen had same of these ssp. leckhamotonensisbrachiopods from the collection of John Jones(c.1818-1881) of Gloucester. He believed thatthese and other specimens formerly in theCheltenham Institution and Museum of PracticalGeology were all 'introduced' to the Leckhampton
Page 2 and 3: THE GEOLOGICAL CURATORVOLUME 5. N0.
Page 4 and 5: Gcolap,rcal Curator, Vol .5, No.5.
Page 6 and 7: THE CHELTENHAM LITERARY AND PHILOSO
Page 8 and 9: The earlv vears of the CLPIDavid Wi
Page 10 and 11: Fig. 4. A lithograph (260 x 200 m.)
Page 12 and 13: on the local geology (Lycett 1857).
Page 16 and 17: 'Geological Museum - superior in it
Page 18 and 19: that is a fact' (Matheson 1964, p.2
Page 20 and 21: A published source which now throws
Page 22 and 23: Fig. 8. The interior of the College
Page 24 and 25: The Second World War and its leeace
Page 26 and 27: The Society provided a forum which
Page 28 and 29: specimens as such. Only a few speci
Page 30 and 31: BIGOT, Prof. [A. P. D. (1863-1953)l
Page 32 and 33: numbers of specimens, and have labe
Page 34 and 35: Fig. 18. Sylvia Humphrey matching s
Page 36 and 37: in August 1985) the particular stre
Page 38 and 39: Eliot, W. 1871. List of Field Clubs
Page 40 and 41: Tatlow, J. 1821. Memoirs of John Ta
Page 42 and 43: The BM(NH) set has a note from C. I
Page 44 and 45: comparison of his ideas on fossils

Number 5 - Geological Curators Group

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