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Most large Victorian buildings were 
either cathedrals or railway stations, 
and the Romanesque-inspired Natural 
History Museum in South Kensington, 
with its great hall and stained-glass 
windows in its side galleries, con- 
formed to these models. The building’s 
unusual fa?ade was encased in terra 
cotta, a kiln-burned clay so fine that 
the grime of London could not in- 
filtrate it. The upper part of the east 
wing was decorated with representa- 
tions of animals of the past, that of 
the west wing with modern organ- 
isms — a separation of fossil and living 
organisms that reflected Owen’s origi- 
nal plan for the public galleries. Man 
was perched at the peak of the roof 
above the entrance. Unfortunately, the 
grand design provided no space for 
a working staff or for specimens pre- 
served in spirits; no room for large 
mammals such as whales, except in 
the entrance hall; and almost no space 
for a library. 
Filling the new space with the old 
collections took nearly three years, but 
Owen did not stay to see it all. In 
the fall of 1883, he wrote in his diary: 
With this year end my official relations 
with the national collections of natural 
history, the several collections,— Zoology, 
Geology, Fossils, Minerals, Plants, — be- 
ing arranged and displayed in their re- 
spective galleries. I felt that I could now 
“depart in peace” for mine eyes had seen 
their salvation. 
On his retirement from the museum 
on January 5, 1884, Queen Victoria 
made Owen, then in his eightieth year, 
knight commander of the Bath. 
Owen was succeeded at the Natural 
History Museum by a true museum 
man, William Henry Flower. Quali- 
fied medically in London’s University 
College Hospital, Flower was a med- 
alist in physiology and zoology, had 
served as a medical officer in the Cri- 
mea, and was the first of the museum’s 
leaders to have extensive museum 
training. Curator for a time of a small 
medical museum, in 1861 he became 
curator of the Hunterian Museum at 
the Royal College of Surgeons. In his 
twenty-three years in this post, he re- 
organized the collections, increased 
the displays, and wrote on mammalian 
anatomy. In 1870 he succeeded 
Thomas Huxley as professor of com- 
parative anatomy and physiology at 
the college, and in 1879 he was ap- 
pointed president of the Zoological So- 
The Natural History Museum’s rare 
book collection includes, right, 
a first edition of Linnaeus’s 
Systema Naturae; sketches and 
drawings by Sydney Parkinson, who 
accompanied Captain Cook on his 
first voyage; and a handwriting 
collection used to verify signatures. 
In recent years, the museum has 
opened several imaginative exhibits. 
The bright, explicit graphics in 
Human Biology, below, were 
controversial when this exhibit 
opened. The modern design of 
Introducing Ecology, below right, 
provides a sharp contrast to the 
museum’s architectural style. 
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