I am back home in Tucson after a road trip that covered seven states and well over 3,000 grinding miles. I am still recovering from all that, but eventually you will see some of the best photos from this trip. I had a great time and did a lot.
This image is from a trip a few years ago to Great Britain. It is the Oxford Museum of Natural History…a fascinating place that would take several visits to take it all in. As you can see from the picture, there are several skeletons from prehistoric animals spread all over the place…including a T-Rex that you can see off to the right (I shot a close-up of the T-Rex and showed it to you two years ago in this blog).
Actually this very large structure also houses another museum…The Pitt River Museum. Its hard to tell where one museum ends and the other begins as the only way to get to Pitt River is through the Natural History Museum. Pitt River is actually the name of a British explorer who collected thousand of archaeological and anthropological artifacts from all over the world. The collection now counts over 500,000 artifacts, donated by travelers, scholars and missionaries. And that does not include the exhibits in the Natural History Museum.
Actually, it was the architecture of this building that inspired me to take this shot. You just don’t see this kind of architectural design in America. It was built in 1861 and would be classified as Neo Gothic architecture. The ornamentation of the stonework and iron pillars incorporate natural forms such as leaves and branches, combining the Pre-Raphaelite style with the scientific role of the building. In that vein, statues of eminent men of science stand around the ground floor of the court…from Aristotle and Bacon through to Darwin and Linnaeus.
By the way, if you are bothered by clutter, be forewarned that both museums hold a lot of stuff. Otherwise it is well worth a visit.
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