British Museum (Natural History): Director's Office: Official Papers of the Superintendent

This series consists of official letters, minutes and memoranda from the Principal Librarian and Secretary to Richard Owen, as Superintendent of the Natural History Departments (1856-1883), together with a few earlier minutes. Many of the items convey to Owen the requests, decisions and instructions of the Trustees, and are the result of reports from the keepers, endorsed and passed on by Owen.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF DIR/931). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 931.

Owen's scientific papers, drawings and correspondence are held in the Natural History Museum's General Library.

Topics

Museums and galleries

Richard Owen (1804-1892) was appointed the first and only Superintendent in 1856, on the urging of Lord Macaulay. The intention was to give the natural history departments a powerful head who would be able to stand up to Antonio Panizzi, the newly appointed Principal Librarian, who was expected to favour the Library and sculpture collections.

Owen was a qualified surgeon, who worked at the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1827, when he was appointed Assistant Conservator, until he resigned to go to the Museum. He was a comparative anatomist, famous for his restoration of extinct reptiles, birds and mammals. He was a prolific author of books, monographs and papers.

Owen's main contributions to the Museum were his advocacy of the need to move the natural history departments away from Bloomsbury; his contribution to the planning and decoration of the new building; and his plan for an 'Index Museum' of typical specimens in the Central Hall, which would summarise the whole of the natural world.