The Exterior of the Linnean Society

Dear Readers, last week my friend L, an accomplished naturalist and all-round nature nerd like myself, took me to see an exhibition at the Linnean Society. I’d been to the Royal Academy many times, but there are lots of other organisations in Burlington House too, all with splendid names – The Society of Antiquaries, The Royal Astronomical Society and The Geological Society to name but three. But the Linnean Society, founded in 1788 and with members including Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace felt like a very special place – it was here that Darwin gave his first exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection back in 1858. Current members include David Attenborough, and indeed I saw him wandering past a few years ago.

L and I were here to see the current exhibition, which is in the splendid library.

The Main Library at the Linnean….

The current exhibition is on depictions of nature on paper – the Linnean has a collection of books and specimens dating back to its inception, and you can go on a behind-the-scenes tour which includes the collections of Linnaeus himself. Included in the exhibition were some of the original prints taken from Durer’s image of a rhino. It always amuses me that the little unicorn horn on the shoulders of the rhino carried on being depicted in images for centuries after the original illustration was made, even though a real rhino has no such appendage.

1658 – Illustration of Rhino by Topsell

We know that people used to press flowers, but at various points there were also pressed fish, and indeed a pressed bat, although the body of the animal was probably drawn on later.

Still life of Bat by Alois Auer (1813 to 1869)

There are also some lovely cyanotypes – this was a camera-less way of capturing images on light-sensitive paper. Anna Atkins is considered to be the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images, and some consider her to be the first woman to create a photograph. I love these images – somehow the lack of colour (except that beautiful blue) means that I can concentrate on the structure of the plant.

Cyanotype of an algae by Anna Atkins (1799 – 1871)

To get into the Linnean, you simply have to ring the doorbell – they have a whole range of talks, and it’s a pleasure just to browse in the library. At the moment they have a facsimile copy of a book by Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717) – she was one of the first people to illustrate the different life stages of insects, which were very poorly understood at the time. She made a trip to Suriname and the book Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium was the result. Just have a look at these extraordinary illustrations!

Spider Avicularia avicularia

So if you’re passing the Linnean on a Tuesday to Friday, do ring the doorbell and have a look around. There are magazines to browse, illustrations to look at, and a whole sense of history to soak in.