Dry Storeroom No. 1, Issue 1A remarkable behind-the-scenes look at the extraordinary people, meticulous research, and driving passions that make London’s Natural History Museum one of the world’s greatest institutions. In an elegant and illuminating narrative, Richard Fortey takes his readers to a place where only a few privileged scientists, curators, and research specialists have been—the hallowed halls that hold the permanent collection of the Natural History Museum. Replete with fossils, jewels, rare plants, and exotic species, Fortey’s walk through offers an intimate view of many of the premiere scientific accomplishments of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Like looking into the mind of mankind and all the fascinating discoveries, ideas, and accomplishments that reside there, Fortey’s tour is utterly entertaining from first to last. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 56
Page 8
... department - and his Deputy Keeper , together with the Museum Secretary , Mr. Coleman . The Secretary was a rather grand per- sonage at that time , who more or less ran the museum from the admin- istrative side . There was also a sleepy ...
... department - and his Deputy Keeper , together with the Museum Secretary , Mr. Coleman . The Secretary was a rather grand per- sonage at that time , who more or less ran the museum from the admin- istrative side . There was also a sleepy ...
Page 10
... Department of Palaeontology , home of the really old fossils . The door opens with a special key . When I first joined the Museum , the keys were issued every day from a key pound staffed by a warder . Every department had a coloured ...
... Department of Palaeontology , home of the really old fossils . The door opens with a special key . When I first joined the Museum , the keys were issued every day from a key pound staffed by a warder . Every department had a coloured ...
Page 11
... department the following day . The locks were changed in the 1980s to modern Yale vari- eties , but the new keys were still tailored to different security needs , so I still cannot get to steal the diamonds . By one of those weird volte ...
... department the following day . The locks were changed in the 1980s to modern Yale vari- eties , but the new keys were still tailored to different security needs , so I still cannot get to steal the diamonds . By one of those weird volte ...
Page 12
... department . The collections in this particular part of the Museum and in this particular aisle are devoted to vertebrates from the geologically recent period known as the Pleistocene , a time slice that includes the last ice ages ...
... department . The collections in this particular part of the Museum and in this particular aisle are devoted to vertebrates from the geologically recent period known as the Pleistocene , a time slice that includes the last ice ages ...
Page 14
... department alone there are three floors of fossil collections of comparable or greater size . That adds up to a very large complement of drawers , and a vast number of specimens . It does not require a calculation to show that only a ...
... department alone there are three floors of fossil collections of comparable or greater size . That adds up to a very large complement of drawers , and a vast number of specimens . It does not require a calculation to show that only a ...
Contents
3 | |
31 | |
Old Worlds | 73 |
Animalia | 114 |
Theatre of Plants | 154 |
Multum in parvo | 185 |
Museum Rocks | 220 |
Noahs Ark in Kensington | 257 |
House of the Muses | 292 |
Acknowledgements | 315 |
Further Reading | 317 |
Illustration Credits | 319 |
Index | 325 |
Other editions - View all
Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum Richard Fortey Limited preview - 2009 |
Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum Richard Fortey No preview available - 2009 |
Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum Richard A. Fortey No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
ammonites animals Archaeopteryx Baryonyx beetles biodiversity bird bones botanical butterflies cabinets carbonatite catalogue century cichlid cladistic colleagues collections colour curator Darwin Department described diamond diatoms dinosaurs Diplodocus Director discovered discovery door drawers early Earth entomologist Erbenochile evidence evolution evolutionary example expert famous fish floor flowers fossil fungi galleries genes genus geological Gormenghast habitat herbarium human important included insects Keeper kind known label laboratory lichens Linnaean Linnaeus living London look maggots mammal meteorites microscope million mineral Mineralogy molecular Natural History Museum nematodes organisms original Owen Palaeontology parasite Peter Peter Purves Peter Whitehead Photo courtesy PhyloCode Piltdown plants preserved published Richard Owen rocks sample scientific name scientists sequences snail species staff story survive systematic taxonomists taxonomy thing tiny tion tree trilobite truffle Trustees type specimens visitors W. N. P. Barbellion whale winkles Zoology