Walter Rothschild & Cambridge

Lionel Walter Rothschild (1868-1937)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walter_Rothschild.jpg

As mentioned in a previous post, I spent a few days in Cambridge back in January and in between sessions had some time on my hands were I went exploring. Now the appeal for me was that Walter Rothschild, whose zoological work I’m focusing on for my PhD, attended Magdalene College, Cambridge from 1887 to 1889. So while I was there I thought I would take some time to visit the college and perhaps get a sense of where he was studying. Admittedly it’s hugely different now, but I think there is a lot to be said for a sense of place and if nothing else, I was curious.

I had some idea about his time at Cambridge from reading his biography. We know he studied the Natural Science Tripos and was taught by Alfred Newton, and for the last few months I’ve been trying to get a sense of what it meant to be studying natural history/ biology at this time. It’s reading I’ve found fascinating, but actually it was nice to put the books aside for an hour and just soak up the atmosphere and have a bit of a wander.

Inner Courtyard of Magdalene College

In contrast to some of the other colleges, Magdalene seemed quiet and low key, it was slightly on the edge of the city and didn’t perhaps have the grandeur I experienced when wandering around a couple of the others. But there was something about Cambridge, it struck me as being a great place to study and I wondered if Rothschild felt the same.

Dining Hall of Magdalene College

I’m afraid I can’t tell you much more about his time at Cambridge right now, but that little bit of exploring I did sparked off a few questions that I’m eager to follow up as things move forward. Either that or it’s just another excuse to go back!

BSHS Postgraduate Conference – Botanic Garden Visit

Back at the beginning of January I headed off to Cambridge for this year’s BSHS Postgraduate Conference. I had a great three days listening to some fantastic papers, visiting some amazing museums and getting to know other students working in similar fields to me. I for one had not realised how popular the history of botany was and not a million miles away from what I’m doing either! It proved to be very thought provoking in terms of my own research and really gave me the much needed enthusiasm I was lacking after the Christmas break.

My favourite part of the Conference however, or at least the part that sticks out the most for me, was our visit to the Cambridge University Botanic Garden where we listened to a great talk from one of their scientists,  who had laid out a number of examples from the collection to show us. I’ve seen behind the scenes of a number of natural history museums of late, but never a herbarium so that in itself was fascinating!

The specimens we were shown included Darwin’s cucumber (I think that’s what it was)– one of those plants you know is important and love to see and yet aren’t quite sure why. Well, let me tell you - it’s the last remaining specimen of that particular plant that was collected by Darwin on the Voyage of the ‘Beagle’ and given to John Stevens Henslow on his return. Now our guide made a point of connecting the importance of such a specimen to modern science; explaining how modern technology and new scientific approaches might one day allow us to replicate the DNA of that specimen and begin cultivating new plants to re-establish living populations as has been done with other recent examples. Among the other specimens laid out the one that again really sticks out for me was that which was carefully sealed in a plastic bag and described as the most lethal plant on the planet. That of course immediately got everyone’s attention, as it would, but so did the repeated insistence that we shouldn’t touch it.

All jokes aside, I think what made this visit particularly memorable for me was the emphasis put on the important links between historic specimens and modern science and how the two are continuing to inform each other. There is a value in maintaining these sorts of collections beyond what we would perhaps even think to consider and that was put across very well during this visit. I now find myself having a better understanding of the work modern botanists can do and the sorts of things they examine and I found that incredibly interesting information to take away.