| Description | Diazo microfilm copy of the Geological Society Museum 'Waste Book', containing an accession register of specimens donated between: November-December 1813 (nos 2757-2887); December 1813-April 1827 (6000-23,476); December 1845-December 1847 (23,600-25588). Most of the entries up to 1827 are in the hand of Thomas Webster, the entries after are mostly in the hand of James de Carle Sowerby.
Entries generally record the following information: Date of presentation; museum reference number; description of specimen(s); Museum location; donor. Donors are indexed at the front. Some of the entries, particularly those from 1819 onwards, are annotated with new references by NHM staff in 1966. |
| Administrative History | According to notes on the front page of the volume made by Charles D Sherborn in 1911, there were originally four sequential books which have since been bound into a single volume. There is a gap in accessioning between April 1827 and December 1845, which would cover the period of the departure of Thomas Webster, Keeper of the Museum (1812- June 1827) and the curatorship of: William Lonsdale (1829-1838); Searles Valentine Wood (1838-1839); Samuel P Woodward (sub-curator 1839-1845); Edward Forbes (1842-1844). James De Carle Sowerby was curator between 1846-1848.
From 1813, the British collection began to be arranged stratigraphically, as opposed to geographically.
Note on Museum locations: between 1816-1828, the Society was based in Bedford Street, and from 1828-1874 it was at Somerset House so it is unclear to which Museum, the locations refer. |