Aspects of Geological History

Geology has long been a significant part of the life of the University of Sydney. This exhibition brings together specimens, books, artifacts and other memorabilia touching on the history of geology from several University collections:

University of Sydney Archives
Rare Books, University Library
Macleay Museum
University Art Collection
Department of Geology and Geophysics
School of Physics

Sir T. W. Edgeworth David 1858-1934

David was professor of geology from 1891 to 1924. Educated at Oxford and the Royal School of Mines, London, he secured appointment as a geologist in the New South Wales Department of Mines in 1882. During the course of his work he discovered the very rich Greta Coal Seam in the Hunter Valley.

During his professorship he presided over a growing department. He also engaged in several scientific expeditions. In 1897 he led an expedition to test Darwin's theory of atoll formation at Funafuti Atoll in the Ellice Islands. Ten years later he joined Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic (1907-09) where he led the first ascent of Mt. Erebus - a 13,000 foot volcano - and led another party to the South Magnetic Pole. During the First World War David enlisted, eventually becoming Chief Geologist for the British armies on the Western Front.

David was an inspiring teacher. Several of his students later held Chairs in other Australian and overseas universities: W.G. Woolnough (Western Australia), W.N. Benson (Otago), Sir Douglas Mawson (Adelaide), Griffith Taylor (Chicago and Toronto), and C.E. Tilley and F. Debenham (both Cambridge). Another graduate, Leo Cotton, succeeded David as head of the Geology Department.

Portrait - The University Art Collection

Griffith Taylor's Ice Axe

William Marples & Sons, Sheffield

In the early days of Antarctic exploration an ice axe was often the difference between life and death. Thomas Griffith Taylor (1880-1963), a graduate in geology from Sydney University, was appointed Chief Geologist on Captain Scott's British Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913). Of the several ice axes which Griffith Taylor took to the Antarctic this was the only one to survive the journey. Later Griffith Taylor established Australia's first geography department at Sydney University in 1920, and Canada's first at Toronto in 1935.
Macleay Museum

Antarctic Basalt

Scoriaceous basalt collected by Edgeworth David on Mount Erebus while he was on Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909.
Department of Geology and Geophysics

Dr Dollar's Integrating Micrometer

Unicam, about 1940
"This instrument is a microscope stage-micrometer for the quantitative estimation of one to six different kinds of constituents in a substance, by the Delesse-Rosiwal method. It is intended, primarily for linear micrometric analysis in petrography, but has similar uses in mineralogy, chemistry and metallography. Economic applications include the volumetric evaluation of components in building stones, road-metals, solid fuels, refractories, and slags." The integrating micrometer was invented by A.J.T. Dollar in 1936.
Macleay Museum

Geological Sketch Map of the Albury District

This printing plate was prepared for a paper on 'The geology of the Albury district' by Germaine Joplin. She won the University Prize for Geology in 1926 and several subsequent prizes. Joplin held a Linnean Macleay Fellowship during 1941-46 for research on the metamorphic geology of the Albury-Condobolin belt and its possible correlation with the Cooma complex. The Albury paper was published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of N.S.W. in 1944.
Macleay Museum

Presentation Album, 1922

'To Professor David from the students who shared in the "rejuvenating" influence of Kosciusko as a token of appreciation of that self-sacrificing spirit which enabled the excursion to be held and which has endeared him to all his students past and present.'
University Archives

The Tomkeieff Collection

The University Library's Rare Book department has extensive and diverse holdings in the history of science, notably in geology. A significant part of this is the library of Professor Sergei Ivanovitch Tomkeieff (1892-1968). Born in Russia, Tomkeieff was for many years on the staff of Armstrong College, later the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in England. With research interests in mineralogy, petrology and petrochemistry, he built up an extensive library, rich in early geological works and works in Russian. The collection was acquired by the University Library in 1970. A selection of items from the Tomkeieff Collection is shown in this and the adjacent case.

E. Bertrand, Recueil de Divers Traités sur L'Histoire Naturelle de la Terre et des Fossiles, Avignon, 1764

Faujas de Saint-Fond, Essai sur L'Histoire Naturelle des Roches de Trapp, Paris, 1788

Horace-Bénedict De Saussure, Voyages dans les Alpes, précédés d'un Essai sur L'Histoire Naturelle des Environs de Geneve, Neuchatel, 1779

William Martin, Petrificata Derbiensia; or, Figures and Descriptions of Petrifications collected in Derbyshire, Wigan, 1809

Scottish Geology

Scotland has played a prominent part in the history of geology. Perhaps its striking geological features account for the numerous first-rank geologists produced by Scotland. Edinburgh, lying between the Mound and Calton Hill, and overlooked by Arthur's Seat, was the scene of active and fruitful geological controversy in the early 19th century - between the Huttonians and the Wernerians - over the formation of basalt. Later Scots rose to leading positions in British geology - Charles Lyell and Roderick Murchison - while others such as Hugh Miller achieved a huge readership.

Tomkeieff Collection, Rare Books

Robert Jameson, Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles; with mineralogical observations made in a tour through different parts of the mainland of Scotland, and dissertations upon peat and kelp, Edinburgh, 1800.
This book was dedicated to John Walker whom Jameson soon succeeded as Regius Professor of Natural History and Keeper of the Museum of the University of Edinburgh.

John MacCulloch, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, London, 1819
MacCulloch pioneered the geological mapping of Scotland.

John Anderson, Dura Den, A monograph of the Yellow Sandstone and its remarkable fossil remains, Edinburgh, 1859
The rich fossil beds of the yellow sandstone of Dura Den near St Andrews in Scotland attracted the attention of such prominent geologists as Louis Agassiz, Charles Lyell and Hugh Miller in the nineteenth century. "The 16th day of September, 1858, will ever be memorable in the annals of Dura Den, when, in presence of Sir Roderick J. Murchison, Lord and Lady Kinnaird, and a distinguished party from Rossie Priory, the largest fossil Holoptychius ever discovered was exhumed from the rock, in full and perfect outline and entireness, and measuring upwards of three feet in length."

[John Murray], A Comparative View of the Huttonian and Neptunian Systems of Geology, Edinburgh, 1802

James Nicol, Guide to the Geology of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1844

Patrick Duff, Sketch of the Geology of Moray, Elgin, 1842

John Fleming, The Lithology of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 1859

Archibald Geikie, On the Phenomena of the Glacial Drift of Scotland, Glasgow, 1863

A portrait of Geology, By a Fellow of the Geological Society, London 1838

Daubuisson (trans Neill), An Account of the Basalts of Saxony, Edinburgh, 1814

New Acquisitions - Rare Books

Edward Hitchcock, Elementary Geology, Amherst, 1840
"In preparing this work, three objects have been kept principally in view.... the third was, to present to the public a condensed view of the present state of geological facts, theories, and hypotheses; especially to those, who have not the leisure to study very extended works on this subject. ... It contains a Palaeontological Chart, whose object is to bring under a glance of the eye, the leading facts respecting organic remains. (When first prepared, I had supposed this method of illustration entirely new: but I find it has recently appeared in Germany.)"
W.H. and Elisabeth M. Deane Collection, Rare Books

G. Poulett Scrope, Considerations on Volcanos, London, 1825
"The object of the following Essay is to throw some light on those phenomena which consist in the development of subterranean activity in the form of Volcanos and Earthquakes, the investigation of which appears to me of primary importance to the progress of Geological science....

"As the idea imparted by the term Cataclysm, Catastrophe, or Revolution, is extremely vague, and may comprehend anything you choose to imagine, it answers for the time very well as an explanation: that is, it stops further inquiry. But it has also the disadvantage of effectually stopping the advance of the science, by involving it in obscurity and confusion.

"If, however, in lieu of forming guesses as to what may have been the possible causes and nature of these changes, we pursue that which I conceive the only legitimate path of geological inquiry, and begin by examining the laws of nature which are actually in force, we cannot but perceive that numerous physical phenomena are going on at this moment on the surface of the globe, by which various changes are produced in its constitution and external characters; changes extremely analogous to those of earlier date, whose nature is the main object of geological inquiry."
W.H. and Elisabeth M. Deane Collection, Rare Books

James Douglas, A Dissertation on the Antiquity of the Earth, London, 1785
"The following Dissertation has been framed from a multiplicity of authentic materials which relate to the natural Theory of the Earth, and much serious inquiry into the writings of learned men, who have been diffuse on the subject. Polemical references only confuse and disgust the reader of taste and discernment, I have therefore concentred a few select facts into a small compass."
W.H. and Elisabeth M. Deane Collection, Rare Books

Albaro Alonso Barba, The Art of Metals, London, 1674
The first complete edition in English, the Earl of Sandwich translated the book from the Spanish edition of 1640 which he had obtained while British ambassador in Madrid.
Sir John Proud Fund, Rare Books

Mines

Gabriel Plattes, A Discovery of Subterraneal Treasure, London, 1653
"And though that the rules and directions given in this Booke bee exquisite, and give strong signes of Mettalls and Mineralls; yet I would bee loath that any man should be thereby animated to take in hand great Voyages, and consume his Estate in the pursuite of his designe; deeming them ever to be unpossible to faile: but rather to make this a part of his businesse, when hee shall come to such places as yeeld strong probabilities....

"For I could wish that many men had the like fortune that one had, who in the climbing up of the great Mountaine called Potersee, in the Kingdome of Perue in the West Indies, tooke hold of a young Tree to stay himselfe withall; and thereby plucked it up by the rootes, whereunto there did adheare good Silver Oare; which being tried and found rich, hath ever since been wrought upon: and innumerable treasure and riches have therehence beene digged, to the valew of many hundred Millions of pounds Sterling."
W.H. and Elisabeth M. Deane Collection, Rare Books

James Barrowman, A Glossary of Scotch Mining Terms, Hamilton, 1886
Tomkeieff Collection, Rare Books

John Henry Pepper, The Playbook of Metals, including Personal Narratives of Visits to Coal, Lead, Copper, and Tin Mines, London, 1866
Pepper quotes a writer on mortality in trades and professions: "If we investigate the condition of these men, we are immediately struck with the lamentable conditions under which they labour, and astonished at the endurance and patience with which they submit to toil.... There are at present upwards of 300,000 human beings acting the part of gnomes (those imaginary beings who were supposed to inhabit the interior of the earth), for the good of the community at large, entering day by day into the bowels of the earth, and emerging in the evening. ... Yet the miner is the industrial Atlas of England. Were he to cease labour, this busy hive of men would speedily be hushed, and the giant limbs of machinery, which now do the drudgery of the world, become as still as the enchanted garden of the fairy tale ere the advent of the prince. Without the coal and the iron, the copper and the tin, they toilfully evolve from vast depths, England would be but a third-rate power."
Tomkeieff Collection, Rare Books

L. Simonin, Mines and Miners; Underground Life, translated, adapted to the present state of British Mining, and edited by H.W. Bristow, London, 1868
Originally published in French as La Vie Souterraine, the English edition includes a geological map of Victoria. The book is more famous for its sensational scenes of mine hazards some of which are displayed at the back of the case.
Tomkeieff Collection, Rare Books

The Dixson Collection
In the late 19th century a valuable collection of minerals from the Barrier Mining Field at Broken Hill was gathered by Edward Aldridge. In 1909 Hugh Dixson gave the University £7,050 to purchase the collection. For some years these were displayed in this building (see the photograph on the stairs) but the collection is now mostly held in storage. Many of the minerals could no longer be collected in the field at Broken Hill when they were purchased by the University.
Department of Geology and Geophysics

Joseph Duff, Notes and Investigations of the Coal Fields ... of South Durham, Bishop Auckland, 1885
Tomkeieff Collection, Rare Books

Geological Map of the Kamilaroi Basin
This printing plate was prepared to accompany a paper on 'The stratigraphical arrangement and occurrence of torbanite deposits in the Upper Kamilaroi Coal Measures of New South Wales', written by J.A. Dulhunty while holding a Linnean Macleay Fellowship in the Department of Geology. The paper was published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of N.S.W. in 1942.
Macleay Museum

W.B. Clarke

Rev. W. B. Clarke (1798-1878) has been called 'the father of Australian geology'. While at Cambridge he attended the geological lectures of Professor Adam Sedgwick. Clarke arrived in Sydney in 1839, bearing a letter of introduction from Roderick Murchison to W.S. Macleay who had arrived earlier the same year. This began a long scientific friendship between Clarke and Macleay.

Clarke contributed extensively to knowledge of Australian geology, particularly in relation to coal and gold. He maintained other scientific interests. He kept meteorological records for many years, was for a time secretary and curator of the Australian Museum, and later a trustee, and published numerous scientific articles in the Sydney Morning Herald. Many of his geological specimens were destroyed in the Garden Palace Fire in 1882, but others survive in the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge.

The Clarke Medal [photograph]
When Clarke died, the Royal Society of New South Wales raised a fund for a memorial to his contributions to science. The medal was to be given to any person who shall have distinguished himself [!] by original research in the geology, mineralogy, botany or zoology of Australia as seemed to the Council of the Society to merit this mark of distinction. The first recipient was Sir Richard Owen, the foremost British palaeontologist.
Noble Numismatics

The Clarke Medal
The specimen copy of the Clarke Medal presented to Clarke's family.
Macleay Museum

Anon., The Claims of the Rev. W.B. Clarke, Sydney, 1860
Edward Hargraves' discovery of gold in New South Wales in 1851 started the Gold Rush. W.B. Clarke, however, had found gold ten years earlier, but to preserve order in the convict colony - "Put it away, Mr. Clarke, or we shall all have our throats cut", Governor Gipps had told him - the discovery had been kept secret. Having been to the California gold rush, Hargraves returned to New South Wales to win a reward from the government for finding payable gold. Very effective at publicity, Hargraves persuaded not only would-be miners but the government who awarded him £10,000. To Clarke, always short of money, this was a tormenting injustice. After much public and parliamentary debate Clarke eventually received £3000.
Sir John Proud Fund, Rare Books

Other Geologists
Clarke met several naturalists with geological interests who visited Australia. His first geological excursion in January 1840 was partly in company with James Dana, the young mineralogist of the U.S. Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes then visiting Sydney. Clarke and Dana maintained a life-long correspondence. In 1842 Clarke spent time with another visiting geologist, J.B. Jukes of the Fly. His relations with other geologists was not always so friendly. He attacked the appointment of Samuel Stutchbury as government geologist in articles in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Samuel Stutchbury 1798-1859
For some years curator of the museum of the Bristol Philosophical Institution, Stutchbury came to Sydney as colonial geologist in 1850, an appointment attacked by Clarke.
Mitchell Library

Ludwig Leichhardt 1813-1848?
Wax cameo, mid 19th century
Leichhardt arrived in Sydney in 1842 having gained extensive geological knowledge in Europe, travelling through much of France and Switzerland on foot and attending lectures in Paris.
Macleay Museum

Clarke's medals
Clarke received numerous medals for his role as a commissioner for the New South Wales contributions to local and international exhibitions.
Macleay Museum

Thomas Mitchell and Wellington Caves

Wellington Valley
The first Europeans to see Wellington Valley were the Surveyor-General John Oxley and his party returning from their attempt to trace the Lachlan River to the sea in 1817. Wellington Valley was used as a staging post for Oxley's second expedition in 1818, this time attempting to trace the Macquarie River to the sea. Following Oxley's enthusiastic report, a settlement was set up in Wellington Valley in 1823. This was then the remotest settlement in the colony, manned by convicts known as 'specials'. These were better educated men, often former soldiers and clerks.

First Fossils
The earliest record of European knowledge of caves in Wellington Valley is a series of watercolours by Augustus Earle, painted late in 1826 or early in 1827. Fossil bones were discovered and first collected by George Ranken early in 1830. These were not in the limestone cave but an irregular cave of red earthy material nearby. In late June, Ranken accompanied Thomas Mitchell to Wellington Valley and many more fossil bones were collected. Another visitor in 1830 was Dr John Henderson, who also collected bones. There were soon several shipments of fossils on their way to Europe.

Scientific Investigations
Scientific interest in the fossils of Wellington Valley has continued intermittently to the present day. Gerard Krefft, the curator of the Australian Museum, conducted investigations at Wellington in 1866 and 1869, on the latter occasion accompanied by Professor A.M. Thomson. Numerous other investigations have been made since.

George Ranken 1793 - 1860
Ranken migrated from Scotland with his wife Janet, and took up a land grant near Bathurst in 1822. In addition to running cattle and sheep he pioneered many agricultural products in the district including wine, beer, and flour. His cheeses were highly praised.

On a visit to the Government station in Wellington Valley at the beginning of 1830 he visited the caves. On descending one of the caves not previously explored he found many animal bones. He took these to Sydney and asked the Presbyterian minister Dr J.D. Lang to take them to Professor Jameson in Edinburgh. When the bones were seen by British and European scientists in 1831 they created a sensation.

Sir Thomas Mitchell 1792-1855
Surveyor-General of New South Wales, 1828-1855
Thomas Mitchell was quick to seize on Ranken's discovery of fossil bones at Wellington Valley and soon went to see the caves for himself. In 1838 Richard Owen in London examined the specimens Mitchell had collected in 1830. On the basis of some of the larger bones Owen named the diprotodon. This began Owen's life-long interest in Australia's fossil remains.

This portrait by an unknown artist was painted in England about 1839 and shows Mitchell in the uniform of a major in the 1st Rifle Brigade of the 95th Regiment.
Mitchell Library

Wellington bone breccia, &c
Macleay Museum

Geomagnetism

Dip Circle
Unlike a compass where the magnetic needle is placed horizontally to measure the direction of magnetic north, the dip circle measures the angle of the lines of magnetic force entering the earth's surface.

This dip circle was made by T.C. Robinson in London about 1830 and may have belonged to Captain Henry Kater, famous for his pendulum experiments. Kater was closely associated with several London instrument makers including Robinson in relation to the construction of precision weights and measures.
School of Physics Historical Collection

Delezenne's Circle
Philip Harris, early 20th century
This instrument demonstrates how an electric current is produced in a coil of wire (on the wooden ring) when the coil is rotated through the earth's magnetic field. This is shown by the deflection of the needle of a galvanometer connected to the terminals on the square frame.
Macleay Museum

Models

In developing an understanding of abstract ideas or complex structures, models - physical or conceptual - have a useful role. Two sorts of models used in geology are shown here.

Crystallography Lecture
University Archives

Contact Goniometer
Unsigned, early 19th century
Invented by Carangeot, the contact goniometer was used by Abbé René-Just Haüy in his pioneering studies of crystallography in the late 18th century.
Private Collection

Wollaston's Reflecting Goniometer
Troughton & Simms, mid 19th century
Wollaston's design, published in 1809, was a great improvement on the contact goniometer, enabling more accurate measurements to be taken, affecting the interpretation of the structure of crystals. "This simple, cheap, and portable little instrument, has changed the face of mineralogy, and given it all the characters of one of the exact sciences." (John Herschel, 1833)
W.B. Clarke Collection, Macleay Museum

[Delvalle Lowry], Conversations on Mineralogy, Second Edition, London, 1826
"I would recommend to persons wishing to commense this study a small collection of Minerals, which may be had of Mr. Mawe, 149, Strand, who deals extensively in Minerals and Shells; or of Mr. G.B. Sowerby, of Regent-Street.

"Wooden models of Crystals, (such as are occasionally spoken of in this Work,) are made by Mr. N.J. Larkin, and may be purchased of him at Gee-Street, Somers-Town: or of Mt. Mawe."
Tomkeieff Collection, Rare Books

R. Brauns, The Kingdom of Minerals,
translated from German into Russian and published in Saint Petersburg in 1906
Tomkeieff Collection, Rare Books

Thomas Sopwith 1803 - 1879
A railway surveyor and mining engineer, Sopwith developed his stratigraphical models about 1840. They show features such as faulting and denudation. The models were dedicated to his friend, Rev. William Buckland, professor of geology at Oxford.
Macleay Museum

Thomas Sopwith, An Account of the mining Districts of Alston Moor, Weardale, and Teesdale, Alnwick 1833
Tomkeieff Collection, Rare Books

Sopwith model No. 1
By removing the upper part of the model No. 1, the effect of denudation is at once apparent; the various strata are exposed to view. "This," as Mr. Sopwith says, "is one of the first lessons in geology, and when learnt, the student will find in every mountainous region abundant examples of valleys having similar strata, which were once connected, but have been severed by denudation; and hence such valleys are termed valleys of denudation. As familiar examples, the valleys of the rivers Tyne, Wear, and Tees, in Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland, may be mentioned. In them, the cropping out, or basset, of the strata is very obvious, and affords peculiar facilities for geological research .... To produce such a valley as that represented in the model, it is obvious that a quantity of rock equal to the whole of the upper portion of the model must have been washed away; and it thus affords a useful exemplification of the vast amount of denudation which has taken place ...."

Prehistoric Life

Reconstructing the Past
Using the techniques of comparative anatomy developed by Georges Cuvier and his successors in the 19th century, fossil animals and plants were reconstructed. Initially these reconstructions were as pictures in scientific or popular publications. In the 1850s, the sculptor Waterhouse Hawkins working closely with Richard Owen, Britain's leading comparative anatomist, constructed life-size models of several fossil animals for display in the grounds of the Crystal Palace in the London suburb of Sydenham. The plaster models shown in this case were supplied to the University from Germany in 1890.
Macleay Museum

"Landscape of the Lias Epoch"
from Louis Figuier, Earth before the Deluge, 1863

"The Age of Reptiles"
from George Richardson, Geology for Beginners, 1843

Extinct Animals Model-Room
The iguanodon dominates the model-room where Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1889) made life-size models of fossil animals. (Illustrated London News, 1853)

Dinner in the Iguanodon Model
Held on 31 December 1853, the dinner was a publicity stunt not merely for the Crystal Palace Company which commissioned the models, but for the scientific views represented in the reconstructions. These were the views of Richard Owen (1804-1892) who appropriately sat at the head of the table and in the head of the iguanodon. (Illustrated London News, 1854)

A Prehistoric Nightmare
"The Effects of a Hearty Dinner after Visiting the Antediluvian Department at the Crystal Palace", (Punch, 1855)