Europe.

I've been thinking a lot about Europe lately. In two days, my parents are going on a two-week jaunt to London and Ireland. As well, this time two years ago, I was returning from a fantastic month-long trip around Europe. Now, in two weeks, my lovely travel companion, Courtney, is getting married!

How time flies... this seems like just last week...

Edam, in The Netherlands

One of my favorite places we visted was the Natural History Museum in London. Typically, museums consist of dramatic and brightly colored displays to attract visitors, and, in part, the Natural History Museum is no different. However, historically musuems were designed to store collections for posterity and the scientific community, not the public. Collections were stored systematically in drawers, away from everyday view. Having these catalogues of animal and plant species, fossils, mineral samples, etc, was an important part of scientific history. Darwin's collections from his voyage on the Beagle are all still carefully stored away in the back rooms of the museum.

To me, the building itself is part of what makes the Natural History Museum so special; it's steeped with history (and I am a huge science-history buff). When the collections got too large to continue to be housed in the British Museum, a new home was built in Kensington. The original curator, Richard Owen, was a deeply religious man, and believed that the stunning variety of life on Earth should be showcased to provide evidence for God's glory (Owen was one of the first people to believe that museums should also be open to the public). Accordingly, he had the museum built to resemble a great cathedral...


Since it was raining the day we went, photo credit here.

 Instead of saints and gargoyles outside, the carvings are of great animals. Inside, every column and ceiling panel is adorned with carved birds, fish, mammals, vines and more.

 The main hall contains a replica model of a Diplodocus, and the ceiling panels are painted with local plant species.



View of the Main Hall from upstairs.
Note the statue of Darwin at the top of the stairs.

 The majority of visitors prefer to spend their time on the main floor, where the flashy, modern exhibits are. But if you venture upstairs, some of the collections are still shown as they would have been before museums relied on money from tickets. This gentleman has a wonderful Flickr album devoted to some of the collections, and his pictures showcase the displays far better than mine. The simplicity of the displays allow the specimens to speak for themselves, and the lack of flashy signs ("something exciting right here!!") means you feel a sense of pride in discovering a particularly interesting item.

Poor Courtney. We didn't spend nearly as much time in the Museum as I would have liked, but probably far more than she would have... (since we spent the earlier part of the day indulging her in the musical intruments wing of the Victoria and Albert Museum, I didn't feel too bad) and there were so many nooks and crannies I would have liked the opportunity to explore. Probably I should have finished reading Richard Fortey's Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum before we went, but hindsight is 20:20. I'll just have to go back!