Hugh Miller: fossils, landscape and literary geology

Knell, Simon; Taylor, Michael A

doi:10.1016/s0016-7878(06)80031-3

Cited by 18 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Charles Lyell, Archibald Geikie and Hugh Miller) made effective use of literary techniques (O'Connor 2007;Buckland 2013). In particular, Miller was an exceptional communicator through literary geology (Knell & Taylor 2006;Taylor 2007). Developing Hutton's vision of geology as a subject of wider public interest (Hutton 1785), he captured the public imagination with tales of his encounters with rocks and fossils through a style of popular writing that also included accounts of local folklore and scenery (e.g.…”

Section: Experiential Re-engagement: Search For New Unconformitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Appreciating geology and the physical landscape in Scotland: from tourism of awe to experiential re-engagement

Gordon

Baker

2015

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This chapter explores people's experience of the physical landscape in Scotland from the perspective of parallel developments in geological science, landscape aesthetics and tourism since the middle of the eighteenth century. It begins with tourism of awe, inspired by the Romantic movement and the excitement of discovering natural wonders promoted through contemporary literature and art during the development of modern geological science in the late eighteenth-early nineteenth centuries. Popular interest and engagement in geology declined with increasing scientific specialization, although the physical landscape continued to draw many visitors and provide creative inspiration for poets and artists. In the 1940s, the beginnings of statutory geoconservation were accompanied by renewed interest in raising public awareness of geology and the physical landscape mainly through didactic methods. More recently, exploration of the cultural links between geology and landscape is providing new opportunities for experiential re-engagement, a shift that recognizes the close links between people and the physical landscape, and one promoted through voluntary sector activity in geoconservation and the development of Geoparks. Rediscovering a sense of wonder and reconnecting with the landscape offer a means of reconciling the natural and cultural worlds and enabling wider public appreciation of geodiversity.

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Section: Experiential Re-engagement: Search For New Unconformitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Appreciating geology and the physical landscape in Scotland: from tourism of awe to experiential re-engagement

Gordon

Baker

2015

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“…Finds in the field are vital to any science, such as palaeontology, based on such collecting. But from the historian's point of view, Knell (2007b) has commented that collections of fossils are not always of much help, at least in themselves; the historian almost always relies on what the collector has written, such as labels, notes, and letters. Of course, this depends on the collection and the questions being asked by the historian: as Kohler (2007) notes, the history of collecting has often been more concerned with questions about collectionsfor instance, with the cultural meanings of objectsrather than the practices of gathering those collections.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Charles W. Peach earned his living from 1824 to 1845 as a coastguard in the customs service, patrolling a stretch of coast against smugglers, and from 1845 as a Customs officer, doing work such as reporting shipwrecks and claiming Crown rights in them. This wide-ranging duty gave him a scope for collecting which was geographically much broader than comparable collectors of similar social status, such as Hugh Miller of Cromarty, who was tied to his bank job from 1836 to 1840, and Robert Dick of Thurso, who was thirled to his baker's oven (Knell and Taylor 2006;Smiles 1878, especially p. 257). Originally from Wansford, Northamptonshire, Peach served in several parts of England (Norfolk, Dorset and Devon) before settling for a while in Cornwall.…”

Section: Charles Peach's Life and Work: An Outline Of Some Significan...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The pattern of collecting is, however, mildly surprising in that it shows Peach occasionally braving the Scottish Presbyterian Sabbath to collect fossils on a Sunday. This would no doubt have shocked Hugh Miller, that staunch Free Kirker, had he still been around (Knell and Taylor 2006;Taylor 2003), although the ways of the worryingly Godless industrial districts of central Scotland were perhaps not so strict as in the stern rural North. Robert Dick did collect on Sunday, but he had no other free day, and was notably bloody-minded, as well as alienated from his Caithness community (Smiles 1878, pp.…”

Section: Patterns Of Collectingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Charles W. Peach, palaeobotany and Scotland

Anderson¹,

Taylor²

2008

Geol Cur

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The move south from Wick to the city of Edinburgh in 1865, some four years after retirement from the Customs service, provided Charles W. Peach with new opportunities for fossil-collecting and scientific networking. Here he renewed and maintained his interest in natural history and made significant palaeobotanical collections from the Carboniferous of the Midland Valley of Scotland. These are distinguished by some interesting characteristics of their documentation which the following generations of fossil collectors and researchers would have done well to emulate. Many of his fossil plant specimens have not only the locality detail, but also the date, month and year of collection neatly handwritten on attached paper labels; as a result, we can follow Peach's collecting activities over a period of some 18 years or so. Comments and even illustrative sketches on the labels of some fossils give us first-hand insight into Peach's observations. Study of these collections now held in National Museums Scotland reveals a pattern of collecting heavily biased towards those localities readily accessible from the newly expanding railways which provided a relatively inexpensive and convenient means of exploring the geology of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. Charles W. Peach had a very 'hands-on' practical approach to scientific investigation which led him to construct novel glass plates with mounted Sphenopteris cuticle, removed intact from Lower Carboniferous shales and limestones originating in West Lothian. These resemble the herbarium sheets with which he was familiar from his parallel and highly significant work on extant flora including nearshore marine algae. He also prepared hand-ground glass microscope slides, particularly of permineralised plant material from Pettycur in Fife, using whatever materials he had to hand at the time. Peach's collection raises questions about the evolution of accepted standards of documentation in private collections, in parallel with the evolution of collecting practices by the new professionals such as the workers of the Geological Survey. Its relatively rapid deposition in museums, compared to many private collections, may also have contributed to its apparently high rate of usage by contemporary workers.

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“…8C) on the back of the tombstone "Testimony of the Rocks" must refer to the book of the same title by Hugh Miller (Fig. 9A) a popular creationist geologist who tried to reconcile what he knew from geology to what he believed from his religious faith (Knell and Taylor, 2006;Taylor, 2007;Trewin, 2011). Miller was a devote Christian who tried to reconcile geology with the account of the creation of the Earth in the Book of Genesis.…”

Section: The Gravestonementioning

confidence: 99%

HISTORY OF ICHNOLOGY—Ichnological Eccentrics: The Curious Case of Dr. Joseph Barratt of Middletown, Connecticut

Pemberton

2015

Ichnos

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Joseph Barratt was a British-born and educated physician who settled in the United States in 1819. He had a great interest in natural history, collecting both plants and insects and studying geology, mycology, ornithology, chemistry, meteorology, Native Americans, and local history. He was apparently a man of great energy and ambition but one who could not focus to see a project to completion. Barratt was active in the early history of the discovery of vertebrate footprints in the Newark Supergroup in the eastern United States but latter developed some very strange theories regarding the age and significance of these deposits. In his latter years, Barratt's mental state deteriorated and he became even more obsessed with trying to publicize his outlandish theories. Dr. Joseph Barratt is remembered in ichnology for basically two things; he sold Edward Hitchcock a superb specimen of vertebrate tracks; and he may have the most elaborate ichnological tombstone ever constructed. INTRODUCTIONOn the evening of December 3, 1858, a shadowy figure roams the streets of Middletown, Connecticut, crawling, over the paving stones in search of real or imagined footprints. Dr. Joseph Barratt once a respected physician and now a destitute and somewhat pathetic loner who spends almost all of his time searching for fossilized footprints. Most of what he "discovers" are not real and he imagines himself an expert who is making fundamental advances to the science of geology. His bizarre theories were counter to the accepted wisdom of the day's most eminent geologists, but that does not deter Barratt who feels that the so-called experts are wrong. In many cases such a scenario might play out that the experts were indeed wrong, sadly that is not the case here.

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Hugh Miller: fossils, landscape and literary geology

Cited by 18 publications

References 6 publications

Appreciating geology and the physical landscape in Scotland: from tourism of awe to experiential re-engagement

Appreciating geology and the physical landscape in Scotland: from tourism of awe to experiential re-engagement

Charles W. Peach, palaeobotany and Scotland

HISTORY OF ICHNOLOGY—Ichnological Eccentrics: The Curious Case of Dr. Joseph Barratt of Middletown, Connecticut

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