The 20th of July 2024 marks Richard Owen’s 220th birthday (also the 189th anniversary of his wedding to Caroline Clift.), and it seems only right for me to chime in amongst the other various posts and celebrations with something of my own.
When we consider the breadth of Owen’s career, our minds usually turn to his vast body of scientific and anatomical work. But his museological endeavours, especially as the foundation of the Natural History Museum was arguably the culmination of his career, is what I’ll be focusing on. The following quote from the editor of the Lancet and The British Medical Journal, Ernest Hart, sheds some light on Owen’s outlook towards the work he carried out at the new South Kensington building in the three short years he worked there after its opening in 1881:
“To the end of Professor Owen's working day, far on in the evening of life, he retained his intense devotion to public work. I remember that when Pasteur was in London, on the occasion of the International Medical Congress in 1881, and was coming to lunch with me, I wrote to Professor Owen, whom Pasteur had expressed a wish to meet, begging him to give up an hour from his ceaseless work in arranging the collections of the Zoological Museum - his great creation at South Kensington - and to come and meet Pasteur at lunch. He wrote to me, "If anything could induce me to surrender an hour from the work here, which my life will be all too short to complete, it would be the opportunity of spending an hour in your house, of which I have seen so little now of recent years, and to meet Pasteur; but I dare not break my resolve. I spend my day examining, classifying, and putting in place the collections brought here from the British Museum. It is for me a sacred trust and I cannot wean myself from the continuous carrying out of the task. I have said to myself I would fain come, but I cannot. Give my kindest and most respectful regards to Monsieur Pasteur, and accept for yourself my affectionate remembrances and my regret that I cannot accept this most seductive hospitality. Come to see me when you like, but do not stay too long. You will find me always among my bottles and my preparations' I have little time to spare from them, for the 'night cometh when no man can work.'"
(Obituary, Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B, D.C.L., L.L.D., F.R.C.S., F.R.S.,',1892, pp. 1413-1414)
The tone of this letter Owen wrote to Hart, I think, emphasises the love he had for this lifelong dream of a ‘National Museum of Natural History’ - starting from some misguided attempts to turn the Hunterian Museum into this national collection, almost adding a new wing in Bloomsbury to hold natural history, to the final location of South Kensington with its purpose-built terracotta palace. He tried to squeeze as much work out of his remaining years as possible to ensure that the new Natural History Museum would be up to standard and serve its purpose as a “cathedral to nature” for generations to come. The language he uses is emotional and somewhat hurried, suggesting an air of urgency. So engrossed that he was unable to spare an hour to meet a friend, instead requesting a short visit to the museum to catch up, presumably, whilst Owen would still be working. I believe he is due some much-needed recognition for the effort and steadfast perseverance he poured into founding such a pivotal institution, especially today.
To close out this short post, here’s how Owen spent another birthday, his 56th in 1860 and his silver wedding anniversary:
“July 20, 1860, was Professor and Mrs. Owen’s silver wedding day. ‘We spent this happy day,’ Mrs. Owen writes, ‘ quietly and gratefully. Silver dishes, cruets, spoons and forks, &c., arrived to celebrate our ‘“‘ Silberhochzeit,” and my dear husband’s fifty-sixth birthday.’” (Owen, 1894, p. 102)
With that said, happy 220th birthday, Owen & thank you for your dedication to ensuring our natural history collections are available to all. Maybe on one of these dates of import (Perhaps in 2081, the museum's 200th anniversary!), we might see Darwin moved from his central location on the staircase and allow Owen to preside over his own museum once more.
.jpg)
Bibliography:
'Obituary, Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B, D.C.L., L.L.D., F.R.C.S., F.R.S.,' (1892), British Medical Journal, vol.2 no. 1669, pp. 1411-1415
Owen, R. (1894) The Life of Richard Owen. London: John Murray