Monthly Archives: February 2015

Recent acquisition – Small archive relating to ‘The Jabberwock’

Artwork from a poster advertising a 1958 issue of 'The Jabberwock'. Coll-1611.

Artwork from a poster advertising a 1958 issue of ‘The Jabberwock’. Coll-1611.

Assisted by the College, a small but interesting archive of material relating to the Edinburgh University literary review, The Jabberwock, has been acquired by the Centre for Research Collections (Special Collections) for Edinburgh University Library.

Letter-heading from correspondence of the Editorial office of 'The Jabberwock'. Coll-1611.

Letter-heading from correspondence of the Editorial office of ‘The Jabberwock’. Coll-1611.

The Jabberwock was an Edinburgh University literary journal, or review, starting in the 1940s and running to the late-1950s, and its editors have included Iain Ferguson, Ian F. Holroyd, Douglas Henderson, Barbara Macintosh and Alex Neish.

Cartoon describing the arrival of 'The Jabberwock', Edinburgh University. Coll-1611.

Cartoon describing the arrival of ‘The Jabberwock’, Edinburgh University. Coll-1611.

The archive contains manuscript and typescript work – literary and political – submitted to the title in the 1950s under the editorship of Ian Holroyd by Scottish literary figures such as: C. M. Grieve, or Hugh MacDiarmid; Robert Garioch; Martin Gray; Sydney Goodsir Smith; Bruce Etherington; Alan Riddell; Jonathan Mills; and, other contributors.

Note to the Editor of 'The Jabberwock' from Martin Gray telling about his submissions to the review. Coll-1611.

Note to the Editor of ‘The Jabberwock’ from Martin Gray telling about his submissions to the review. Coll-1611.

Also in the archive, there is correspondence to and from Ian F. Holroyd, posters for various editions of The Jabberwock and other printed ephemera, journal off-prints that would have assisted in the editing of some articles, scribbled accounts and sales figures, art-work, and some Jabberwock Committee Meeting minutes. Some typed lists of Jabberwock shop sales prompt recall of Edinburgh booksellers no longer with us – Thin’s, Baxendine’s, and Bauermeister’s.

Poster advertising the Volume 5. 1958 issue of 'The Jabberwock'. Coll-1611.

Poster advertising the Volume 5. 1958 issue of ‘The Jabberwock’. Coll-1611.

Holroyd’s correspondents include, among others: Compton Mackenzie; Sean O’Casey; C. M. Grieve or Hugh MacDiarmid; Edwin Muir; Edith Sitwell; Jonathan Mills; Neil Gunn; and, Martin Gray.

Poster for an edition of 'The Jabberwock' featuring contributions by Compton Mackenzie and Helen Cruickshank. Coll-1611.

Poster for an edition of ‘The Jabberwock’ featuring contributions by Compton Mackenzie and Helen Cruickshank. Coll-1611.

Submissions to The Jabberwock by Hugh MacDiarmid include autograph manuscripts: The Scottish Renaissance: the next step; R.B.Cunninghame Graham; and, The significance of Sydney Goodsir Smith. The archive holds a typescript piece by Compton Mackenzie, at the time aged 70 (so probably from 1953), in which he lauds twenty-somethings, writing ‘that the University magazine of today is a much more interesting production than it was half a century ago […] I find a magazine like Jabberwock much more lively than The Oxford Point of View. I can read it through from cover to cover with pleasure […] I am quite unable to grasp what inspires all this pessimism over modern youth’.

Letter dated 14 April 1952 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of 'The Jabberwock' from Compton Mackenzie promising a contribution. Coll-1611.

Letter dated 14 April 1952 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of ‘The Jabberwock’ from Compton Mackenzie promising a contribution. Coll-1611.

Letter dated 3 June 1952 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of 'The Jabberwock' from Compton Mackenzie again promising a contribution. Coll-1611.

Letter dated 3 June 1952 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of ‘The Jabberwock’ from Compton Mackenzie again promising a contribution. Coll-1611.

Signature of Hugh MacDiarmid (C.M.Grieve) on a letter dated 23 November 1950 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of 'The Jabberwock'. Coll-1611.

Signature of Hugh MacDiarmid (C.M.Grieve) on a letter dated 23 November 1950 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of ‘The Jabberwock’. Coll-1611.

Signature of Edith Sitwell on a letter dated 23 October 1951 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of 'The Jabberwock'. Coll-1611.

Signature of Edith Sitwell on a letter dated 23 October 1951 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of ‘The Jabberwock’. Coll-1611.

Signature of Sean O'Casey on a letter dated 24 April 1958 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of 'The Jabberwock'. Coll-1611.

Signature of Sean O’Casey on a letter dated 24 April 1958 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of ‘The Jabberwock’. Coll-1611.

Signature of Neil Gunn on a letter dated 24 April 1958 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of 'The Jabberwock'. Coll-1611.

Signature of Neil Gunn on a letter dated 24 April 1958 to Ian Holroyd, Editor of ‘The Jabberwock’. Coll-1611.

Dr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

Recent acquisition – Sketch-books of Scottish architect Charles Lovett Gill (1880-1960)

Cover to the sketchbook 'British Embassy design 1905', by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Cover to the sketchbook ‘British Embassy design 1905’, by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Recently, a group of 13 sketch-books by the Scottish architect Charles Lovett Gill were acquired by the Centre for Research Collections (Special Collections) for Edinburgh University Library. Gill was notable for his long-term architectural partnership with Professor Sir Albert Edward Richardson (1880-1964).

Notes about the ambition for the sketch-book 'British Embassy design 1905', by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Notes about the ambition for the sketch-book ‘British Embassy design 1905’, by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Gill was born in 1880. He trained as an architect with E. G. Warren of Exeter, and he studied at the Royal Academy Schools. In 1904 he was the Ashpitel Prizeman (an annual architectural award in the name of Arthur Ashpitel) of the Royal Institute of British architects (RIBA), and he became an Associate of RIBA in 1905, and a Fellow in 1915 in recognition for his contribution to architecture in England.

One of the edifices in the sketch-book 'British Embassy Design 1905' by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

One of the edifices in the sketch-book ‘British Embassy Design 1905’ by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Gill started a practice in London in 1908 and did much work in central London. With Professor Sir Albert Richardson he was joint architect for the Duchy of Cornwall estate in Devon. The Richardson & Gill architectural partnership was eventually dissolved in 1939.

One of the edifices in the sketch-book 'British Embassy Design 1905' by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

One of the edifices in the sketch-book ‘British Embassy Design 1905’ by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Gill presented a design in the competition for the rebuilding of the Regent Street Quadrant in London, and he was responsible for the facade of the then Regent Street Polytechnic (now part of University of Westminster). Much of his work was in the City of London where he designed Moorgate Hall, Finsbury Pavement and other buildings in Moorgate and elsewhere. Charles Lovett Gill died on 26 March 1960.

One of the edifices in the sketch-book 'British Embassy Design 1905' by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

One of the edifices in the sketch-book ‘British Embassy Design 1905’ by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

The recently acquired collection of Gill sketch-books contain pencil and watercolour tinted sketches of various places done between 1904 and 1941. One of the sketchbooks bound in linen is titled British Embassy Design 1905 and it may be a project set by his tutors. It contains sketches of a number of buildings in Paris and London with neatly finished elevations of a planned and very large Beaux-Arts edifice – a British Embassy in a foreign capital – that would dominate any chosen site. It was a grand building which, according to Gill’s notes in the sketch-book, was to ‘face a public park or square’.

One of the edifices in the sketch-book 'British Embassy Design 1905' by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

One of the edifices in the sketch-book ‘British Embassy Design 1905’ by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Other sketch-books contain drawings, sometimes colour tinted, of buildings and architectural features in Paris, London and in other parts of Britain.

Water-colour of Notre Dame, Paris, by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Water-colour of Notre Dame, Paris, by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

St. Paul's, Covent Garden, London, by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, London, by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Parish Church of St. Alfege, Greenwich by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Parish Church of St. Alfege, Greenwich by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Gutterings and down-pipes, by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Gutterings and down-pipes, by Charles Lovett Gill. Coll-1603.

Dr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

Bicentennial of the birth of Professor Edward Forbes (1815-1854), marine biologist, geologist, natural historian and biogeographer

DRAWING & SKETCHING, STUDYING & RESEARCHING, TRAVELLING & DREDGING, DESCRIBING MOLLUSCS & SHELLFISH, MUSEUM CURATION & PALAEONTOLOGY, PRESIDING OVER SCIENTIFIC BODIES & CLASSIFIYING TERTIARY FORMATIONS, AND LECTURING – ALL IN A SHORT BUT PACKED 39-YEARS… PROFESSOR EDWARD FORBES… ‘A BRILLIANT GENIUS’…

Signature of Forbes on letter, 11 March 1848. Dc.4.101 Forbes.

Signature of Forbes on letter, 11 March 1848. Dc.4.101 Forbes.

12 February 2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth in Douglas, Isle of Man, of Edward Forbes the marine biologist, geologist, naturalist and pioneer in the field of biogeography (the study of the geographic distribution of plants and animals). On the Isle of Man, Forbes is most noted for his cataloguing of the marine life inhabiting the island and the neighbouring sea.

Born on 12 February 1815, Edward Forbes received his early education in Douglas and even in those early years he showed a taste for natural history, literature and drawing. His parents were said to have been so impressed with the artistic talent behind the drawings and caricatures on his schoolbooks that they sent him to London to study art with ambitions for a place in the Royal Academy Schools. His artistic talent was not good enough for the Royal Academy however, so in 1831 he entered Edinburgh University as a medical student instead.

Signature of Edward Forbes, from the Isle of Man, Edinburgh University session 1831-32. The signature was written in November 1831, and Forbes was the 115th student to matriculate. Volume 'Matriculation 1829-1846'.

Signature of Edward Forbes, from the Isle of Man, Edinburgh University session 1831-32. The signature was written in November 1831, and Forbes was the 115th student to matriculate. Volume ‘Matriculation 1829-1846’.

His 1832 vacation was spent looking at the natural history of the Isle of Man, and in 1833 he travelled to Norway, sailing on a brig from Ramsey on the Isle of Man to Arendal in Norway. He described his Norwegian trip in a journal – his Journal in Norge – illustrated with his own sketches. Barely four lines into his journal, started on Monday 27 May 1833, we find the first natural history log of the trip, ‘Caught some Gurnards … on one of them were several parasite insects’.

012 Title_from_Journal_in_Norge_Dc.6.91

Title to the journal Edward Forbes wrote on his trip to Norway, 1833. From the ‘Journal in Norge’. Dc.6.91

011b Sketch_from_Journal_in_Norge_Dc.6.91

On Saturday 22 June 1833, Forbes was in the country around Stavanger, ‘hilly but apparently fertile’ where the rock was chiefly gneiss and mica slate. There he found an immense boulder though with ‘neither rule or hammer’ he ‘could obtain neither specimen or correct measurement’. From the ‘Journal in Norge’. Dc.6.91

010 Sketch_from_Journal_in_Norge_Glacier_at_Bondhus_Hardanger_Fjord_Dc.6.91

On Tuesday 3 July 1833, in the evening, Forbes arrived at a little village in the vicinity of the Glacier at Bondhus on Hardanger Fjord. He sat down at ‘a table plentifully supplied with the staple food of the country’. From the ‘Journal in Norge’. Dc.6.91

Other natural history during these years included dredging work in the Irish Sea, and travels in France, Switzerland and Germany. Indeed he spent the winter of 1836-37 in Paris studying at the Le Jardin des Plantes which included attending the lectures of De Blainville (1777-1850) and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844), and looking at the geographical distribution of animals. He then travelled to the south of France and across the Mediterranean to Algeria collecting specimens. A born naturalist rather than a student of medicine, he had earlier – by 1836 – abandoned the notion of a medical degree and instead devoted his studies to science and literature.

Sketch by Forbes of Stavanger, Norway, including Stavanger Cathedral (Stavanger domkirke) in his 'Journal in Norge'. Dc.6.91

Sketch by Forbes of Stavanger, Norway, including Stavanger Cathedral (Stavanger domkirke) in his ‘Journal in Norge’. Dc.6.91

Sketch by Forbes of Kronborg Castle (Hamlet's Castle) at Helsingør, Denmark, in his 'Journal in Norge'. Dc.6.91

Sketch by Forbes of Kronborg Castle (Hamlet’s Castle) at Helsingør, Denmark, in his ‘Journal in Norge’. Dc.6.91

While at Edinburgh University, Forbes and John Percy were joint publishers of a magazine, called the University Maga, which was published weekly during session 1837-1838. Its frontispiece was sketched by Forbes and contained subjects within it which were similar to those commented on by Sir Archibald Geikie much later on in 1915. Forbes’s animals and figures are ‘in all kinds of comical positions and employments’, said Geikie (quoted from Manx Quarterly, p.329. Vol.V. No.20, 1919).

Detail from the cover of the ‘University Maga’ (pen and ink drawing) is shown here. Dc.4.101 Forbes.

004b Pen_and_Ink_Drawing_for_Maga_1838_Dc.4.101 Forbes005 Pen_and_Ink_Drawing_Detail_Maga_1838_Dc.4.101 Forbes006 Pen_and_Ink_Drawing_Detail_Maga_1838_Dc.4.101 Forbes009 Pen_and_Ink_Drawing_Detail_Maga_1838_Dc.4.101 Forbes

Investigations by Forbes into the natural history of the Isle of Man occupied much of his time, leading to a volume on Manx Mollusca once he was back in Edinburgh. The remainder of the 1830s saw him touring Austria, delivering scientific papers and lecturing in Newcastle, Cupar and St. Andrews and to the Edinburgh Philosophical Association, on subjects such as terrestrial pulmonifera in Europe, the distribution of pulmonary mollusca in the British Isles, and British marine life. In 1839 he obtained a grant for dredging research in the seas around the British Isles, and towards the end of that year he published a paper on British mollusca in which he established a division of the coast into four zones.

The 1840s opened for Forbes with a series of lectures in Liverpool. He also visited London where he met other scientists, and he travelled and did more dredging. In 1841 he published a History of British Starfishes based on his own observations – and many observed for the first time – and that year too he was appointed as naturalist on board HMS Beacon engaged in surveying work in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. He also explored upland Turkey, looking at its antiquities, freshwater mollusca, plants and geology.

Small pen and ink sketch of a ray and reference to membership of the 'ray club' on a letter, showing the signature of Edward Forbes. The 'ray club' may refer to the Ray Society, a scientific text publication society founded in 1844. It was named after John Ray, the 17th-century naturalist. Gen.524.3.

Small pen and ink sketch of a ray and reference to membership of the ‘ray club’ on a letter, showing the signature of Edward Forbes. The ‘ray club’ may refer to the Ray Society, a scientific text publication society founded in 1844. It was named after John Ray, the 17th-century naturalist. Gen.524.3.

Back in Britain again, Forbes took a post as Curator of the museum of the Geological Society, and in 1844 he became Palaeontologist to the Society. He presented a report on his research in the Aegean to the British Association and lectured before the Royal Institution on his studies of the littoral zones and his discoveries in these. Also in 1844 he became a Fellow of the Geological Society and Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey, and in 1845 a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was also voted as a member of the Athenaeum Club. Dredging in Shetland and around the west of Scotland occurred during this period, as did the presentation of a course of lectures at the London Institution and then also at King’s College.

Forbes was instrumental in the founding of the Palaeontological Society in 1847, and in 1849 he was working on the position in geological time-scale of the Purbeck Group (the Purbeck Beds) famous for its fossils of reptiles and early mammals. More dredging occurred, this time in the Hebrides, and more lecturing, and preparation for the on-going co-publication of a History of British Mollusca which appeared 1848-1852. His many dredging excursions contributed to this work. Between 1849 and 1850 he was busy arranging a new geological museum at the Geological Survey premises in Jermyn Street, London, which would open in 1851.  Before that though, more dredging occurred in the western Hebrides, and more lecturing in the Royal Institution.

013 Small_pen_and_ink_sketch_Gen.524.3

014 Small_pen_and_ink_sketch_Gen.524.3 Throughout their work, ‘Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S.’, Macmillan & Co., Cambridge and London, 1861, Archibald Geikie and George Wilson include vignettes and tail-pieces by Edward Forbes at chapter-ends… Probably not unlike these here. Gen.524.3.

015 Small_pen_and_ink_sketch_Gen.524.3016 Small_pen_and_ink_sketch_Gen.524.3

In the summer of 1851, Forbes became Lecturer in Natural History in a new School of Mines (the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts, later the Royal School of Mines) which had been formed out of the efforts of geologist Sir Henry De La Beche (1796-1855). Indeed the staff of the Geological Survey became the Lecturers and Professors of the School of Mines, and the new School was located in the same Jermyn Street premises as the museum.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

The winter of 1852-1853 saw Forbes working on the classification of the tertiary formations, and still a comparatively young man – in his late-30s – he was elected as President of the Geological Society in 1853. The following year, in 1854, he became Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University, succeeding Professor Robert Jameson who held the Chair for nearly half a century from 1804 until 1854. In his History of the University of Edinburgh 1883-1933, Arthur Logan Turner would write that Forbes was among ‘a remarkable group of outstanding men’ whose ‘individual influence’ after the mid-19th century would help science become ‘seriously recognised in the University’ – the other remarkables included Lyon Playfair (Chair of Chemistry), P. G. Tait (Chair of Natural Philosophy), and Archibald Geikie (Chair of Geology). Another historian – Sir Alexander Grant – would describe Forbes as ‘a brilliant genius’.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

Professor Edward Forbes delivered his inaugural lecture on 15 May 1854 but during the meetings of the Geological section of the British Association held in Liverpool he suffered from a fever. Forbes would not live to see publication of his work on the tertiary formations, and after only a few month’s tenure as Professor – after only a few days into the winter session 1854-1855 – he had to cancel his lectures owing to ill-health. He died shortly afterwards on 18 November 1854 at the age of 39. The brilliant genius ‘was extinguished’, his light ‘having just shown itself above the horizon’, Sir Alexander Grant was to write later.

Professor Edward Forbes was buried in Edinburgh’s Dean Cemetery.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

Tabular lists by Forbes. Gen.524.3.

A student of Edward Forbes, James Hector (1834-1907), later Sir James Hector the Scottish geologist, naturalist, and surgeon, would name a mountain after his former Professor. Hector had participated in the Canadian Palliser Expedition to explore new railway routes for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and named the 8th highest peak in the Canadian Rockie Mountains after Forbes. Mount Forbes (3,612 metres) is in Alberta, 18 km southwest of the Saskatchewan River crossing in Banff National Park.

Organised by the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture in partnership with Manx National Heritage, the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society and the Society for the Preservation of the Manx Countryside, the Edward Forbes Bicentenary Marine Science and Conservation Conference will take place 12-14 February 2015 at the Manx Museum, Douglas, Isle of Man. The Museum will also stage pop-up displays on the life and legacy of Edward Forbes during the Conference.

Signature of Forbes on letter, 15 June 1851. Dc.4.101 Forbes.

Signature of Forbes on letter, 15 June 1851. Dc.4.101 Forbes.

Dr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives and Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

Sources:

  • Manx Worthies. Professor Edward Forbes (from the Manx Note Book, by A. W. Moore): Edward Forbes [accessed 2 Feb 2015]
  • Eric L. Mills. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Forbes, Edward (1815-1854), marine biologist, geologist, natural historian [accessed 2 Feb 2015]
  • Grant, Sir Alexander. Story of the University of Edinburgh during its first three hundred years in 2 volumes. London: Longmans Green and Co., 1884. Vol.II., p.434-435.
  • Turner, A. Logan. History of the University of Edinburgh 1883-1933. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1933. p.240.
  • Material contained within Coll-133, Papers of Edward Forbes, Edinburgh University Library (Centre for Research Collections)