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The Art and Science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs
The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, a series of thirty-seven incredible sculptures of prehistoric animals and geological displays, were unveiled to the public as part of the famous Crystal Palace Park in 1854. The display, which includes iconic depictions of rhinoceros-like dinosaurs, regal extinct mammals, serpentine marine reptiles and giant, frog-like amphibians, captured a snapshot of palaeontology from a golden era of scientific discovery in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, they are internationally recognized as a milestone in our portrayals of extinct life. This book celebrates these classic scientific artworks and explores: their history, their conception as a wider part of the Crystal Palace project, their execution using unorthodox building materials, their reception by nineteenth century and modern critics, and their enduring mysteries. Hundreds of historic and modern photos and original paintings show modern scientific visions of the extinct animals restored. Written in collaboration with and in support of the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs charity, this superb book gives the most detailed and complete history of these world-famous sculptures yet, reinforcing their status as masterworks of education and palaeoartistry.
- GenresPalaeontology
192 pages, Hardcover
Published May 23, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 18, 2022
Unprecedented in detail and production values, this is a love letter to the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs that shows why they are masterworks of palaeoart despite being outdated. Read my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2022...
January 3, 2023
This is a smashing book. The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs have long been a favourite visit for children, but they are so much more - a monument of global significance at risk of accelerating deterioration . From this book, I learned how they were part of a wider Geological Court , a new addition to the Crystal Palace Great Exhibition after it moved from Hyde Park in 1854. The dinosaurs stand in settings also representing geological strata and even mining (reminding us that great strides in academic knowledge were partly driven by enormous economic forces of industrialisation: coal, limestone and iron). The settings straddle from the Devonian Rocks of 60 million years ago to the Quaternary, less than 2.58 million, and spread over islands on artificial lakes as well as the adjacent park. Within these contexts a variety of animals are represented, mammals as well as dinosaurs, in improvised concrete and composite materials . They are arranged in small groups or tableaux, as they may once have looked in life, but also providing a "long view" through time, in a pre-Darwinian conception of evolution.
A great strength of the book, and the dinosaurs as a monument, is that they remind us that deep time depth and evolution were already accepted facts by academics, but that Darwin and Wallace contributed the mechanism that allowed evolution to take place.
The arrangement of the creatures illustrated an understanding of successive extinction events, which were fitted into the contemporary religious view of the last event being a biblical flood (though none of the events in the fossil record could be linked to it, rather there as a conceptual metaphor for extinction available in the bible even if the transgressions of animals were harder to imagine).
An enormous achievement of the authors, was in linking the creation of Crystal Palace park to the scientific consultation on the dinosaurs to the artistic contribution to their recreation. These were not the first representation of long-extinct creatures, but they were the first life-sized and 3D models. And, whilst they may be derided for the (very) few things they got wrong, they got so much more right. This is the first book that situates them within the discipline of "palaeoart" , which provides insights into the interpretation of fossils by comparison with modern creatures and the physics, or "bio-mechanics" of the possible interpretation of skeletons. Thus Megalosaurus was represented with flexed limbs as a predator and with large muscles supporting a large head. So the act of representation also contributed to the comprehension of lifestyle and palaeoenvironments. This is notwithstanding the unfortunate consequence of working with so few fossils that some animals were mixtures ("chimera") of different species.
The book is lavishly illustrated in colour , as any coffee-table book, but is as consistently referenced, as any scientific paper. I know it began as a "lock-down" project of Covid times but it has been completed as a real achievement for lovers of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs as well as those interested in palaeontology. Proceeds go to the conservation of the dinosaurs, the authors should be congratulated for their generosity and the quality of this book Ellinor MichelMark Witton
A great strength of the book, and the dinosaurs as a monument, is that they remind us that deep time depth and evolution were already accepted facts by academics, but that Darwin and Wallace contributed the mechanism that allowed evolution to take place.
The arrangement of the creatures illustrated an understanding of successive extinction events, which were fitted into the contemporary religious view of the last event being a biblical flood (though none of the events in the fossil record could be linked to it, rather there as a conceptual metaphor for extinction available in the bible even if the transgressions of animals were harder to imagine).
An enormous achievement of the authors, was in linking the creation of Crystal Palace park to the scientific consultation on the dinosaurs to the artistic contribution to their recreation. These were not the first representation of long-extinct creatures, but they were the first life-sized and 3D models. And, whilst they may be derided for the (very) few things they got wrong, they got so much more right. This is the first book that situates them within the discipline of "palaeoart" , which provides insights into the interpretation of fossils by comparison with modern creatures and the physics, or "bio-mechanics" of the possible interpretation of skeletons. Thus Megalosaurus was represented with flexed limbs as a predator and with large muscles supporting a large head. So the act of representation also contributed to the comprehension of lifestyle and palaeoenvironments. This is notwithstanding the unfortunate consequence of working with so few fossils that some animals were mixtures ("chimera") of different species.
The book is lavishly illustrated in colour , as any coffee-table book, but is as consistently referenced, as any scientific paper. I know it began as a "lock-down" project of Covid times but it has been completed as a real achievement for lovers of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs as well as those interested in palaeontology. Proceeds go to the conservation of the dinosaurs, the authors should be congratulated for their generosity and the quality of this book Ellinor MichelMark Witton
June 2, 2024
The book is about the Geologic Court at the Crystal Palace Exhibition.
It starts with its inception and the biographies of the major personalities involved and its planning and execution. Some of the major players in the project (Owen and Harris) have experienced multiple crests and dips in the reception of their legacy overall, so it is interesting to see that interact with this project. The replica dinosaurs are the attention-grabber, but the site was much more than that, and the effort of getting the 'right' rocks alone is a story. And of course no plan survives contact with reality, so the imagined version of the exhibit was not what we got.
Probably. The events were old enough, and the records incomplete enough, that understanding how the exhibit came together and was constructed requires as much imagination as recreating the ancient beasts did.
The second portion of the book is about each of the creatures represented in the exhibit, looking to contrast how they were developed at the time and what the scientific consensus is now. This is the most striking part of the book, because it includes the Witton's artwork about how contemporary sources might imagine the same creatures.
Outside of the same interesting parts of the first section being reduplicated here, as the authors try and both decode the construction of the animals and detail some of the behind the scenes drama about the choices, the interesting part is those choices. We tend to think about the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs as being a primitive view of ancient life. But not only does their presentation represent a sort of advanced for the time interpretation of prehistoric life, the authors document the smart choices involved. Inelegantly, there was a lot of science that went into it. So each one represents a sort of micro-history.
The book concludes with a history of the exhibit from its opening, its treatment, both physical and intellectual, over the next nearing-on 175 years, and the efforts in preservation and restoration of the site.
The book is dense in the best sort of way, which is to say that it is full of startling and interesting facts. It is also full of centuries of paleoart and useful diagrams. Even only as a sort of coffee-table picture book this is worth it, and purchases in part go to support the preservation efforts at the site.
It starts with its inception and the biographies of the major personalities involved and its planning and execution. Some of the major players in the project (Owen and Harris) have experienced multiple crests and dips in the reception of their legacy overall, so it is interesting to see that interact with this project. The replica dinosaurs are the attention-grabber, but the site was much more than that, and the effort of getting the 'right' rocks alone is a story. And of course no plan survives contact with reality, so the imagined version of the exhibit was not what we got.
Probably. The events were old enough, and the records incomplete enough, that understanding how the exhibit came together and was constructed requires as much imagination as recreating the ancient beasts did.
The second portion of the book is about each of the creatures represented in the exhibit, looking to contrast how they were developed at the time and what the scientific consensus is now. This is the most striking part of the book, because it includes the Witton's artwork about how contemporary sources might imagine the same creatures.
Outside of the same interesting parts of the first section being reduplicated here, as the authors try and both decode the construction of the animals and detail some of the behind the scenes drama about the choices, the interesting part is those choices. We tend to think about the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs as being a primitive view of ancient life. But not only does their presentation represent a sort of advanced for the time interpretation of prehistoric life, the authors document the smart choices involved. Inelegantly, there was a lot of science that went into it. So each one represents a sort of micro-history.
The book concludes with a history of the exhibit from its opening, its treatment, both physical and intellectual, over the next nearing-on 175 years, and the efforts in preservation and restoration of the site.
The book is dense in the best sort of way, which is to say that it is full of startling and interesting facts. It is also full of centuries of paleoart and useful diagrams. Even only as a sort of coffee-table picture book this is worth it, and purchases in part go to support the preservation efforts at the site.
July 11, 2024
Very nice history of the paleo-art sculptures in London's Crystal Palace Park. Created in 1851 for the Great Exhibition, the sculptures by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins drew on current knowledge of prehistoric life, and recreated in cement and brick various prehistoric reptiles and mammals. Perhaps the best known are the sculptures of Iguanodon and Megalosaurus, though they are often cited more for their inaccuracy than their innovative nature as the first such dinosaur reconstructions intended for public consumption.
The book is very detailed in its history, and in its biographical information about Hawkins and scientists like Gideon Mantell and Richard Owens, who were important scientific sources for the artist. The authors' primary goal is to fully document what is still known about the construction of the park, and how it has fared in the 170 years since. The illustrations (from many different years) are lovely, and give a nice sense of what these works of art looked like in 1851 and today.
The book is very detailed in its history, and in its biographical information about Hawkins and scientists like Gideon Mantell and Richard Owens, who were important scientific sources for the artist. The authors' primary goal is to fully document what is still known about the construction of the park, and how it has fared in the 170 years since. The illustrations (from many different years) are lovely, and give a nice sense of what these works of art looked like in 1851 and today.
February 18, 2023
A fantastic resource for anyone interested in the Crystal Palace monsters, masses of detail and a deep understanding of their construction, history and how and why they ended up looking as they did against what we now now about their actual appearance. Technical in parts, but a wonderful read and full of interesting detail.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews