We visited the Natural History Museum (actually: "The British Museum (Natural History)") in 2013, hoping to interest toddler Penelope with the dinosaurs and such. We did not stay long. We thought we'd give it another go on this visit, having toured most all the other major museums in London. We did mostly dinosaurs and minerals. It was another short visit, in part because of my aversion to mere bones and stones exhibits (I like a little history of science context also, please), and partly because of painful memories incurred of Geology 101, 102, and 103, courses I barely passed. But I digress. Actually, we were there as much for Alfred Waterhouse's neo-Romanesque and Victorian architecture as the exhibits. The building is often called the "Cathedral of Nature."
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Bones of a giant blue whale swooping down; this used to be
where Dippy the Diplodocus resided, now removed to other realms |
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| Sculptural program: Darwin's monkeys? |
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| Chuck himself, presiding; looks lonely, bored |
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| Fearsome animatronic life-sized dinosaurs, worthy of Disney |
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| Open a little wider, please |
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| I was hoping for a little dinosaur whoopie, but it's a family museum |
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The architecture really is astounding, even considering
the great wealth available in England in Victorian times |
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Four or so large cases of important objects, with occasional
references to why they might have been important to the march
of science |
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Huxley, Darwin's attack dog; I can rarely think of him
without reference to Huxley College in Horsefeathers; my
favorite higher education movie; Groucho was president |
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Moving on to the mineral wing, because: diamonds,
which are a girl's best friend |
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| Diamonds of color |
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| 2,000 carats of topaz |
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| Mineral wing |
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| We were on tour too and I was ready to move on |
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| Major destination for school groups |
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