Learning More ... the Statues in the Court

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Learning more... The statues in the court

The statues in the court A brief history of the statues A number of eminent When the Museum opened it was planned scientists, philosophers that each pillar around the gallery would and engineers are play host to a statue of one of the great commemorated with scientists. The statues were paid for by statues around the private subscription however, and Museum: Galileo, unfortunately only 19 full statues were Newton, Darwin and completed. All but one are carved in Caen Linnaeus are among stone - a limestone from Normandy in the figures that grace France. Many of the sculptors were well- known Victorian artists. (See back page) the court. Several busts celebrate Oxford men of science who have made a significant contribution to the Museum.

The Museum is a magnificent testament to the Victorian neo-Gothic movement. It was designed to be a ‘cathedral to science’ and reflects this throughout. The stonework in the Most of the carvings include a symbol or object that relates to interior is no exception: columns of polished the work of the subject: the traditional story has it that Newton stone are capped by was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head, intricately carved capitals leading him to develop his theory of gravitation. depicting different botanical orders, and the A key to the statues in the court court is surrounded by statues of the great men of There are 28 statues and busts on display in the main court. science. Darwin, Newton and Galileo act as inspiration to researchers, 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 students, and visitors to the Museum. 21 28 22 What is ‘Learning more’? ‘Learning more’ comprises a series of articles 13 23 about the Museum and its collections. It is designed for older students, teachers, 24 researchers, and anyone who wants to find out more about particular aspects of the 12 25 Museum’s work and its history. This article introduces the statues of the main 11 26 court. It gives brief biographies of the subject and further details of the statues. 10 27

Look online for other 'Learning more' articles: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning Main entrance

©themselves. Oxford University Museum of Natural History Learning more... The statues in the court

Meet the statues 4. Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) Using the key on page one, travel English philosopher whose clockwise around the court from the ideas form the basis of south-west corner to meet the statues. modern scientific investigation. He 1. Humphrey Davy (1778 - 1829) championed empirical English chemist who discovered several methods of scientific enquiry, chemical elements, and invented the and argued that the purpose miner’s safety lamp. of scientific advancement Davy rests his right was to improve the human hand on a carving of condition. These two beliefs the lamp (right). There continue to underpin are two books at his scientific methods and feet, one of them, philosophy today.Caen stone statue by Thomas Woolner Salmonia, his own work on fly fishing. Caen stone statue by 5. Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) Alexander Munro Greek philosopher whose ideas are fundamental to 2. Joseph Priestley (1733 - 1804) western study and thought. English chemist and Unlike Plato, Aristotle amateur natural believed that ultimate philosopher whose reality was to be found in scientific work covered the material world. He physics, electricity, wrote treatises on logic, magnetism and optics, as ethics, politics, aesthetics, well as chemistry. He is mathematics and science. credited with the discovery His system for the of oxygen in 1774. He also classification of animals laid invented fizzy water the foundation for modern by dissolving carbon taxonomy. Caen stone statue by Henry Armstead dioxide in water. He was a religious dissenter and a 6. John Hunter (1728 - 1793) political non-conformist, Caen stone statue by Scottish doctor and anatomist. Hunter’s with sympathies for the French Edward Stephens most significant contribution to medicine Revolution. He later emigrated to America. was to provide an experimental basis to surgical practice. He favoured 3. Roger Bacon (c.1214 - c.1294) experimentation and observation. ‘Don’t English philosopher and scientist, famous think, try’ was his famous injunction. for his work on optics and for promoting experimentation. Hunter’s left elbow rests on a plinth concealing Bacon is depicted holding a snake coiled round a an astrolabe and calipers. staff. This is a traditional The astrolabe represents symbol of medicine, and his scientific studies, and is associated with the the calipers suggest an Greek god Aesclepius. aspiration to harmony. Caen stone statue by Caen stone statue by Henry Hope Pinker Henry Hope Pinker

7. Thomas Sydenham (1624 - 1689) 9. Hippocrates (c.460 - c.377 B.C.) An English physician, who A Greek physician, known as the ‘father of has been called the ‘father medicine’, Hippocrates was the greatest of English medicine’, he physician of his time. His medical practice favoured the Hippocratic was based on observation and on the study methods of observation and of the human body. He differed from his clinical experience. He contemporaries in his belief that illness studied and described the had physical and rational causes. conditions that gave rise to Prevailing views held evil spirits and the epidemics, and was a whims of the gods responsible for ill witness to the great plague health. Hippocrates was also concerned of 1666 and to major out- with the ethics of medicine, and the moral breaks of smallpox. He was duties of a physician. The ‘Hippocratic a skilled and popular oath’ he composed outlining these practitioner of medicine, Caen stone statue responsibilities is perhaps his greatest as well as the author of by Henry Hope Pinker legacy, and in a modern form, remains the many important medical texts. basis of trust between a doctor and patient. He fought for Cromwell in the Civil War. The two serpents entwined around a staff, the caduceus, 8. William Harvey (1578 - 1657) is sometimes used as a symbol for medicine. English doctor and anatomist, he is famous However it is more often for his discovery of the circulation of the associated with Hermes, the blood, described and published in 1628. Greek god of commerce. Although his views were controversial, he Caen stone statue by was recognised as a leading physician, and Alexander Munro was appointed doctor to Charles I. 10 11 12 Harvey is depicted with a heart resting in his right hand; his work remains the foundation for modern research into the circulatory system. Caen stone statue by Henry Weekes 10. Sir John Scott Burdon-Sanderson Waynflete Professor of Physiology, 1882-1895; Find out more Regius Professor of Medicine, 1882-1904. The ‘Learning more’ series includes other 11. Walter Frank Raphael Weldon articles related to the Museum's Linacre Professor of Comparative Anatomy, 1899-1906. architecture: ‘The stonework of the 12. George Rolleston Museum’ describes the stonework and the Linacre Professor of Physiology, elaborately carved columns, capitals and 1860-1881. corbels in the gallery, and ‘The architecture 13. Benjamin Woodward of the Museum’ outlines the design and Prime architect in the firm construction of the building. All articles are responsible both for the design and building of the Museum; listed in the ‘Learning more’ section of the died after a bout of ill health in Museum’s website: June 1861, a year after the www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning Museum was opened. 13

14. Carl von Linnaeus (1707 - 1778) 16. Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) Swedish botanist, known as the ‘father of English physicist and mathematician. taxonomy’, Linnaeus published the first The basic principles of investigation that edition of his classification of living things, Newton defined, together with his scientific Systema Naturae, in 1735. His system of work, laid the foundations for modern hierarchical classification still survives, as science. His two most famous works are the does his most important legacy, the system Principia (1687), and Opticks (1704). He of binomial nomenclature that he devised made a huge impact on astronomy by and implemented. This ‘two name’ system - defining the laws of motion and universal a combination of the genus and species gravitation. He used them to describe the names - is recognised as the official movement of the moon around the earth, starting point of modern taxonomy. Before and the planets around the sun. Newton Linnaeus there were no accepted standards investigated the properties of white light, for naming living organisms. and he constructed the first reflecting In his left hand telescope. He is probably the most Linnaeus holds a influential scientist who ever lived. Linnaea sprig of Newton holds a borealis , and at his book in his left feet is the Lapland hand; an apple Menyanthes plant rests at his feet trifoliata . representing his Caen stone statue discovery of the by John Tupper laws of gravity. Caen stone statue by Alexander Munro 15. Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) 17. Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) English naturalist considered to be the Italian astronomer and physicist. Galileo ‘father of modern biology’. studied motion using pendulums and by He developed the theory of measuring the speeds of falling objects. He evolution in his book, On built the first refracting telescope to be the Origin of Species by used for astronomical observations. He Means of Natural saw the craters on the moon, he discovered Selection, published in Jupiter's moons, and he observed that the 1859. Darwin’s ideas were Milky Way was made up of stars. He was controversial, as they condemned by the Inquisition for his belief challenged the prevailing in the Copernican system of planetary belief in God as creator movement which states that the planets, and ‘man’ as unique and including the earth, move around the sun, separate from the rest of rather than believing the earth to be the the animal kingdom. The fixed centre of the the universe. publication of his theory sparked the ‘great debate’ held in the Museum in 1860. Today, however, Darwin’s theories are integral to our understanding of the Caen stone statue by Galileo holds two lenses, one in each hand. natural world. Henry Hope Pinker Caen stone statue by Alexander Munro

18. Euclid (about 300 B.C.) 21. Hans Oersted (1777 - 1851) Probably the most famous of the Greek Danish physicist, who in mathematicians, he wrote The Elements, a 1820 discovered that treatise on geometry and other branches of electricity and mathematics. magnetism were related phenomena. This Euclid holds a discovery laid the compass and a foundation for the theory scroll bearing of electromagnetism, and geometric inscriptions. for the research that later Caen stone statue created technologies such by Joseph as radio, television and Durham fibre optics. Plaster statue by K. Jobhen

19. William Buckland (1784 - 1856) 22. John Phillips A scientist and (1800 - 1874) clergyman, William Prominent geologist and Buckland founded the Oxford academic; he was scientific teaching of the first keeper of the geology in Oxford, and University Museum, brought together what 1857-1874. would become the core of the Museum’s geological 23. William Smith collections. (1769 - 1839) An engineer who is now 20. Gottfried Leibnitz (1646 - 1716) considered the ‘father of English geology’, Smith German mathematician. created the first One of Leibnitz’s great geological map of Britain. achievements was the development of the binary system of arithmetic. 24. James Watt (1736 - 1819) Another significant A Scottish engineer, Watt contribution was his work is famous for his success on dynamics. He also in modifying steam developed differential and engines to make them integral calculus, although more efficient. His new there was serious models of the steam controversy between him engine had a huge impact and his contemporary Sir Caen stone statue by on the Industrial Isaac Newton as to who Alexander Munro Revolution as they came had worked out the details to be used in factories, and explained the proofs first. Leibnitz mills and mines. In applied the methods of mathematical proof recognition of the to other disciplines such as logic and importance of his work, philosophy, and among his lifelong aims the electrical unit of were ambitious plans to collate all human power, the watt, was Caen stone statue by knowledge, and to reunite the Church. named after him. Alexander Munro

25. George Stephenson (1781 - 1848) The Sculptors An English engineer, Many of the sculptors were well-known Stephenson is generally artists in their own right, whose work may regarded as the founder of be seen in cathedrals, churches, town halls the British railways. He is and stately homes all over the country. associated with Rocket, the steam-powered Alexander Munro carved the statues of locomotive which has Hippocrates, Galileo, Isaac Newton, provided the model for Humphrey Davy, Gottfried Leibnitz and almost every steam- James Watt. The son of a stonemason, his powered locomotive built talent was spotted by his father's employer, since. He also used his the Duchess of Sutherland. He exhibited at engineering skills to devise the Royal Academy and the Great Exhibition Caen stone statue the most effective rail of 1851. He became associated with the Pre- by Joseph Durham tracks for the locomotives. Raphaelites. His work made a significant impact on the pattern of industrial life in Britain. Thomas Woolner, a sculptor and poet, was a founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His most famous works are 26. Sir Joseph of British imperial heroes, such as Captain Prestwich Cook. For the Museum he carved the (1812 - 1896) statues of Francis Bacon and Prince Albert. Prominent geologist and Another Pre-Raphaelite was John Tupper, archaeologist; Professor who was responsible for the statue of of Geology at Oxford, Linnaeus. 1857-1874. Joseph Durham, who carved the statues 27. Henry Smith of Euclid and George Stephenson, was a (1826 - 1883) popular sculptor who exhibited Professor of Geometry at frequently at the Royal Academy. His Oxford, 1861-1883, and most famous work is probably his statue keeper of the University of Prince Albert outside the Albert Hall. Museum, 1874-1883. The frieze of figures around the podium of the Albert Memorial was carved by 28. Albert, Prince Consort (1819 - 1861) Henry Armstead, who also carved the statue of Aristotle in the Museum. Husband to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert Henry Pinker, Henry Weekes and took a keen interest in Edward Stephens were also well- the arts and sciences. He established Victorian sculptors. Henry was the driving force Weekes began teaching at the Royal behind the Great Academy in 1869. His lectures were later Exhibition of 1851, published in a book, 'Lectures on Art'. profits from which enabled the Royal Albert This article was written by Sarah Phibbs, Hall and the museums in and designed by Bethia Thomas. South Kensington to be Published 2008 built. Oxford University Museum of Natural History Parks Road Caen stone statue by Thomas Woolner Oxford OX1 3PW