The Geological Society Library is pleased to announce our next event ‘Ghosts of the Museum: An elementary class on fossils and how to draw them’, to be held on 6 November 2014.

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MUSEUM
The room which now houses our main library was until 1911 the Society’s Museum. Traces of its previous use can still be seen in the drawer runners in the shelving bays and openings which once held catches and hinges of wainscot cabinet doors. From its earliest days, the Geological Society collected rocks, minerals, fossils and other interesting objects in order to document what was known about this new burgeoning science. Unlike rival collections at the British Museum and other learned bodies, the Society's Museum was intended to be comprehensive. Access was restricted to members of the Society but it was to be of educational use to both beginners and accomplished geologists.

EDWARD CHARLESWORTH
Following the resignation in 1842 of the popular curator William Lonsdale, the Society received six applications for his job. One of these was from the palaeontologist Edward Charlesworth (1813-1893) who had held curator posts at the Ipswich Museum, British Museum and Zoological Society. 

Unfortunately three years previously Charlesworth had engaged in a campaign of verbal fisticuffs with a number of our eminent Fellows - which he then decided to publish in full in a special supplement of his own short lived journal. Indeed so bad was the situation he created, he disappeared off to South America for a few months until the fuss died down. Members of Council, who remembered only too well the special supplement, decreed that Charlesworth was ineligible to apply for the job. 

MUSEUM REVISITED
This special evening will bring the room back to its original educational use once more, and, for one night only, Edward Charlesworth (aka author and Geoscientist editor Dr Ted Nield) shall fulfil his wish and become the curator of the Museum!

Curator ‘Charlesworth’ will be conducting an elementary class on fossils and demonstrating how to draw them in a scientifically correct manner in order to understand their structure fully – using as a basis some of the Society’s original specimens, which have not been seen in the building since 1911.

The class is suitable for beginners but artistically challenged experts are welcome. Space is very limited and entry is by ticket only. Admission £12. 

For further details see: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/GSL-Library-14-Ghosts-of-the-Museum or contact [log in to unmask] or telephone 020 7432 0999 to book a place.

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