| AdminHistory | Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 - 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist. He held the position of Superintendent of the Natural History Department at the British Museum and oversaw the removal of the collections to South Kensington, resulting in the establishment of the British Museum (Natural History), later called the Natural History Museum. He is also credited for coining the term 'dinosauria' and was an outspoken critic of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, arguing that the process was more complicated than what Darwin had originally proposed.
Owen was born in Lancaster and was the youngest son of Mr Richard Owen. He studied surgery at Lancaster County College and later the University of Edinburgh before entering St. Bartholomew's Hospital and joining the Royal College of Surgeons in 1826. Through his connections at the College he found work at the Hunterian Museum as an Assistant Curator, and would later become a Hunterian professor in 1836 and the curator of the Hunterian Museum in 1849. To fulfil his duties at the Museum, Owen would shift his studies to zoology and comparative anatomy, and set about arranging and cataloguing the museum's disorganised collections. The task of going through the collections, describing and illustrating them in multiple volumes took thirty years to complete and resulted in a more enhanced catalogue for the Museum.
In 1856, after finishing the catalogue at the Hunterian Museum, Owen was appointed Superintendent of the Department of Natural History at the British Museum. In this role he found that the space for the natural history collections prevented the specimens from being exhibited and arranged correctly, and suggested in a Parliamentary paper that they should be housed in a new building. The idea of moving the collections was hotly contested, but Owen persevered and the collections were moved to a new building in South Kensington, which provided ample accommodation with room to expand. This move also paved the way for making the collections accessible for viewing by the public. Owen is also credited with engaging in many areas of research related to public life and was on the Preliminary Committee of Organisation for the great Exhibition of 1851.
Owen would go on to receive many honours for his work including the Wollaston Medal from the Geological Society and the Royal Medal from the Royal Society, and he was also offered a grace-and-favour residence in Richmond Park by Queen Victoria. He was a member of many Societies, including the Linnean Society, which he joined in 1836 along with the Geological Society which he joined in the same year. Additionally, he was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, publishing many papers in its Proceedings, and he became the Royal Microscopical Society's first President in 1839. His involvement in Science led to him to becoming an active participant in the British Association for the Advancement of Science, eventually becoming its President in 1858.
Opinions of Owen by his contemporaries appear to have been mixed. To some he cut a controversial figure and was considered to be deceitful, arrogant and envious of the achievements of others. He was also purported to have claimed other people's work as his own. Others, however, saw him as sympathetic, large-hearted, courtly, and gentle, though prone to being fervent in his beliefs. While he did make significant contributions to the study of natural history in the first part of his career, he would fall out of favour later on due to serious errors he made in scientific judgements and his views on the theory of evolution.
In the last years of his life, Owen's mental and physical abilities declined, confining him to his bed, and he also had severe deafness, making conversing difficult. Despite suffering from these and a case of dermatitis, from which he slowly recovered, he passed away peacefully on 18 December 1892, aged 88 years old. He was married to Caroline Amelia Clift (1801-1873) from 1835 and they had one son, William Owen (1837-1886). |
| Description | A sketchbook by Richard Owen containing sketches of various scenes, including some drawn directly on the page of the volume and others pasted in. The volume is roughly dated from the 1860s (the stuck in pages have a watermark for 1859 and some of the drawings in the volume are dated 1868). However, one drawing in the 'History of the Art of War from the Earliest Ages’ section has been added by another hand post Owen's death in 1892 as the cartoon refers to weapons in the First World War (1914-1918). Some pages appear to have been cut out as some stubs remain. The style of the drawings vary also as some are cartoon in style whilst others are grander, more formal in style, with heavier pen lines, though all are thought to be by Owen. Most are black and white, although some of the nautical scenes have a grey watercolour background, with the exception of the church scene on p.17 where colour has also been used. Many of the scenes focus on Dover or individuals from France coming to England, and nautical scenes.
The contents of the volume are described below, with the page numbers added in square brackets:
[4] Written upside down, in faint pencil "Mrs Owen. Her Boke of Coakes" which suggests the volume was initially owned by Richard Owen's wife, Caroline. [This seems to be referring to the 'Boke of Cokery', thought to be the first English recipe book, published in 1500].
[5, 7, 10 and 11] Cartoon entitled 'A true history of the perilous adventures of M. Lebrun (Maison Bertrand Lebrun. Epiciers en gros.) to Perfide Albion' with text in English and French describing the scenes which shows LeBrun, a French greengrocer, visiting England seemingly for a holiday. Includes scenes of Lebrun travelling by train and boat, encounters with a Custom Home Officer and people checking 'Fenians' are not entereing the country, staying at the Grosvenor [Hotel], seeing a "British Grenadier", directions to "Peekadeelee Street" [Piccadilly], brawling scenes, dangerous traffic, meeting Monsieur Figg at the Counting House, visiting a wine merchants cellars with Mr Candy and Mr Corker and drinking too much, visiting "Laisse-Terre" [Leicester] Square, and being presented with a large hotel bill. (4 pages)
[13 and 15] Cartoon entitled 'Ballroom scraps' with illustrations of food, wine, a bouquet of flowers, and a violin and bow above the title. Includes scenes entitled "the first man" showing a man standing on his own in a room with just a footman, "Lord Decimus Fogey" next to an elderly gentleman, musicians with a piano and violin, and "the gentleman who dances after too much lobster salad at supper" showing a man and woman sprawled on the floor. (2 pages)
[17] Church scene labelled "Brussels 1868" congregants kneeling on chairs before an altar and priest, with a boy falling off a chair, and man in official clothing holding a fanfare trumpet. Stained glass windows in the background. Watercolours have been used to add colour to the scene. (1 page)
[19] Cartoon entitled "Sketches at Dover" showing people waiting at Calais pier for the boat, men carrying large sacks on their shoulders labelled 'F.O' with 'The Queen's Messenger' written underneath, and 2 pictures alongside each other showing a man, woman and "Polismanns" [policeman], one of which is a caricature based on impressions formed by [French] artists. (1 page)
[21] Cartoon entitled "The Band of the 94th at the "Maison Dieu". An Episode of Dover. 1868." showing a military band being sent to play at the Town Hall "or Maison Dieu" and a man who hopes to watch them play but they all return home disappointed as the doors of the building are locked. The man writes an angry letter to the Dover newspaper, the "Chronicle" but they do not publish it. The drawings and accompanying text (which rhymes) are numbered and start at the top, then are in column style on the left hand side, then the right hand side, and finish in the middle of the page. (1 page)
[23] Cartoon style drawing of a crowded scene, presumably at a French train station entitled "Tout le monde descende" with [what looks like a] train behind with carriages labelled "Liege", "Anvers", "Postes" and "Bureau Ambulant" [travel office]. (1 page)
[25] Scene showing people, mostly men, standing near the sea shore, with a boat sailing away in the distance. Many of the men are grandly dressed, in Tudor style clothing, and there is also an old man, in shabbier clothing, trying to get the attention of one man in the centre of the scene. Other individuals are in the background, including a family with a boy holding [what appear to be] loaves of bread. Parts of 2 buildings can also be seen on either side of picture, one of which seems turreted and defensive in style, with a flag flying above it, and the other seems more like a church building. Possibly linked to 26-30 below, as can see similar style buildings in background of this one and 26, although slightly different stylistically. (1 page, pasted in)
[26, 27, 28, 29 and 30] 5 nautical scenes, pasted on successive pages, which seem to be a sequence, telling a story. The first picture shows a large boat with 3 masts sailing away from the shore, with buildings visible on the land; the 2nd picture shows [what appears to be] the same boat sailing through large ice bergs, and pitched at an angle, as though possibly stuck on the ice; the 3rd picture shows the boat sailing away in open water; the 4th picture shows a close up view of the boat, with 7 crew men climbing the rigging and seemingly luring a seagull to them using a fish; the 5th scene shows 10 crew men on the ship, one of whom holds a crossbow, whilst a seagull falls from the sky with an arrow visble in it's chest. Others watch on, including one man steering the boat, whilst another sits on the floor holding a cup whilst a barrel and another cup are on the deck nearby. The pictures are all similar in style and have the same grey watercolour background. (5 pages, pasted in)
[31, 33 and 35] Cartoon entitled "History of the art of war from the earliest ages" with labels for each stage, including the 'Primitive Age', 'Invention of Weapons', 'Of a deadly nature', 'Egyptian. Supposed to be Rameses II', 'Assyrian. Siege of City', 'Ancient Briton & Roman Legion', 'Battle of Hastings by an Eye-Witness', 'Invention of Artillery. (Taken from an Ancient M.S.)', 'Introduction of Small (!) Arms', 'With a Row, Dow, Dow, for the British Grenadiers!' 'Development of the courtesies of war. "Gentlemen of the French Guard, fire first!"' 'Introduction of arms of precision. The enemy is no longer visible.' 'Short range artillery used in the First World War'. Weapons depicted include rocks, axes, spears, knives, swords, bow and arrow, battering ram, cannons and rifles. [N.B. Owen died in 1892 so the sketch relating to artillery used in the First World War must have been added by another hand much later on, at least after 1914 but likely later].
[37] Nautical scene, possibly linked to 26-30 above but seems to be slightly different in style. Most of the figures are huddled on the deck looking distressed whilst one man stands looking out to sea, perhaps looking for land. (1 page, pasted in).
[39] Scene showing a banquet, with 3 tables of men eating and drinking, with servants bringing food and drink to the table, and a few weapons and hats discarded on the floor. Musicians with trumpets and drums play in the background. A dog and a cat sit with bones in the foregound. The scene is labelled 'Piccolomini v: Schiller W.O. Jan 15. 1860', presumably refering to the play The Piccolomini (Die Piccolomini) by Friedrich Schiller. (1 page, pasted in).
The volume also includes loose inserts, such as an obituary for Richard Owen, reprinted from the British Medical Journal, December 24th 1892, with an image of Owen at the start; an image of Owen as a younger man holding a large bone; and a black bordered piece of paper with 'Professor Rick. Owen' written on it, with 4 black seals at each corner.
Also stored with the volume are 8 black and white photographs mounted on black card, showing Owen's grace and favour house at Richmond [Sheen House], interior shots of the library and drawing room, deer in [presumably] Richmond Park, and a man and woman seated in a horse drawn trap with a woman standing nearby, all in Victorian clothing. |