and changed: collections merged, 
keepers retired or transferred to new 
departments, new keepers joined the 
staff. In 1853, the Zoological Society 
of London decided to give up its own 
museum and presented its type speci- 
mens to the British Museum. The 
whole structure of the Natural History 
Department changed in 1856, so that 
it became virtually a separate museum 
within the museum. In May of 1856, 
when Richard Owen was appointed 
the department’s first superintendent, 
great changes were imminent. 
Richard Owen (1804-92) was per- 
haps the greatest anatomist of Vic- 
torian times, despite an implacable op- 
position to Darwin’s theory of evo- 
lution by natural selection. A 
physician and fellow of the Royal So- 
ciety, he had been in charge of the 
John Hunter collection and others at 
the Royal College of Surgeons, where 
he was professor of comparative anat- 
omy. Also a paleontologist, he came 
to the Natural History Department 
as a professional, and he realized that 
to make order out of chaos, he would 
have to find more space. Owen was 
not the first to come to this conclusion, 
but he pressed the matter relentlessly, 
and since there was no room to expand 
the facilities in Bloomsbury, he sought 
a separate site at South Kensington. 
His first proposal was turned down 
by the government in 1860 on finan- 
cial grounds, but in 1862 twelve acres 
of the 1862 International Exhibition 
Above left: Diplodocus (left) and 
Triceratops (right) grace the Natural 
History Museum's central hall. Above : 
In the museum’s taxidermy and 
model-making department, situated 
in a separate building on the 
outskirts of London, a mule is 
readied for Origin of Species, an 
exhibit to open in May. The Irish 
wolfhound, seemingly alert to the 
activity around it, is proof of the 
department's skill; it too is part of 
the new exhibit. Left: I. W.B. Nye of 
the Department of Entomology 
compares a male specimen of 
Thysania agrippina, the world’s 
largest moth, with the earliest 
illustration of the species, in P 
Cramer’s Uitlandsche Kapellen, 1776. 
by the Cromwell Road were acquired 
for the purpose of establishing a new 
home for the Department of Natural 
History. 
The first architect chosen to design 
the new museum building was Capt. 
Francis Fowke of the Royal Engineers. 
The museum trustees rejected his 
plans, however, and in 1865 he died 
while amending them. Alfred Water- 
house was approached in 1866 and 
eventually agreed to undertake the de- 
manding task, but it was 1871 before 
his plans were approved by the trus- 
tees and 1873 before construction be- 
gan. The new building was more or 
less ready by 1880, and in April of 
1881, the museum was officially in 
business. 
