Some Victorian Geologists | theimmeasurablewilds-sutherland.co.uk

Some Victorian (or Edwardian?) Geologists.

Although I am no geologist, I keep an eye open for images of geologists working out in the field. Most of these are not necessarily working in Scotland, but I thought I would offer them to you, rather than keep them hidden in my magic lantern slide box, hoping that a few of you might be interested. Some are untitled. If anyone knows who and/or where they are, do please let me know. I will also for completeness add some studio shots of the more famous geologists, many of whom will have worked in Scotland.

As always, if the image seems incomplete or cropped (most of them are, I'm afraid), please click on it and you will find the full image displayed. I would recommend that you then continue manually.

Ichthyosaurus in situ, Stockton. CJ Watson. BAGP

Geologists. Breccia gash, Marsden. G Hingley. BAGP

Geologists. Faulted coal-seam. Kimberley. FG Allen. BAGP

Geologist. False Bedding Hilbre Island. CA Deneux. BAGP

Geologist Unnamed. BAGP

Geologist. Unnamed. BAGP 2

Geologist. Overfolding Loughshinny. JA Cunningham. BAGP

Geology Soc. set, poss. 19thC Geologist

John MacCulloch's 3-volume "Description of the Western Islands of Scotland..." 1819 was a seminal work in Scottish geology. His 1824 "Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland" is looked on with less favour these days, but it forms an important record of life in early 19th century Scotland.

John Kay's late 18th century caricatures of figures in Edinburgh society form a wonderful panorama. Included is this delightful image of John Hutton at work with his hammer.

Full title: "The Victorian Geologist in full regalia. Rev. Professor Buckland, DD, FRS, Equipped as a Glacialist." Buckland wrote the volume on Geology in the Bridgewater Treatises series.

Father of Ben, it was Charles Peach who found fossils at Durness that sent Murchison rushing up to the far north in 1855. It is somehow fitting that the twp Peaches both began and ended the Highlands Contoversy.

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, the man who dominated geological thinking in Britain for some 30 years in the middle of the 19th century. His determined adherence to his views on the geology of the far north led to the Highlands Controversy.

This image has been stuck into my copy of "Siluria".

Such was Murchison's fame in Victorian times that he could command large audiences at his lectures ("a vast assembly" reportedly at Dudley Caves), and images of him in caricature, and even on a playing card, can be found.

Sedgwick was Murchison's hero, until they fell out over a dispute involving the rocks of the Welsh borders.

This interesting photo of the BAA meeting in Manchester in 1861 probably shows various key scientists of the day. Murchison can be seen on the left, and Sedgwick on the right - at a safe distance following thier tiff!

Nicol, a professor at Aberdeen University, was the one man who dared to doubt publicly Murchison's paradigm for the rocks of the far North-West.

Professor Andrew Ramsay.

Ramsay was one of the established geologists happy to go along with Murchison's views on the Highlands.

Geikie owed much to Murchison, who set him off on his successful career path, and in return Geikie showed utter devotion to Sir Roderick and his model until the bitter end.

Callaway was the first geologist to produce serious research that cast doubt on Murchison's theories.

It was Lapworth who after a meticulous survey in the early 1880s, exposed for certain the failings in the model for the succession of rocks in the Highlands that had been adopted by the Geological Survey since 1860.