Through Lyell’s Eyes

We are grateful to present another guest blog! This time from Timothé Lhoste who is currently completing his master’s degree studying History of Science at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. Timothé was in touch with the Centre for Research Collections requiring access to Charles Lyell’s Notebooks, and a very interesting story emerged, which sheds light on how Lyell worked. Read on to find out more about Timothé (and Lyell’s!) research …

I am working on a scientific controversy concerning a “human fossil” known as ‘L’Homme de la Denise’, and named to acknowledge its discovery in 1844 on the slopes of the Denise Mountain, near the city of Le Puy-en-Velay in the French Massif Central. The find was crucial, as from the outset, doubts hovered over the authenticity and the exact age of the discoveries. In fact, these bones and the gangue (the material that surrounds them) continued to fuel a lively discussion for more than a century.

Drawing on the method of the biography of scientific objects, such as Marianne Sommer’s Bones and Ochre: The Curious Afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland, my study seeks to trace the impact of this object on the social world and vice versa. I am also interested in the evolution of different scientific interpretations of these objects.

Lyell’s sketch showing the south face of Denise Mountain, Notebook 240, page 11

Charles Lyell’s Notebooks 239 and 240 document his trip to France during the summer of 1859, when he stayed in the vicinity of Le Puy-en-Velay from August 6^th to 16^th. He already knew this region, since he had visited it in 1828, as evidenced earlier in the run of his Scientific Notebooks in Notebook 12, dated 30 June – 21 July 1828. This area of the French Massif Central called Velay was of particular interest to Lyell. Volcanic formations had allowed the genesis and preservation of many fossil sites – and so of course would be of interest to Lyell the ‘volcano  hunter’! – but in 1859, Lyell was now looking in particular for solid geological evidence of the antiquity of man.

For this reason, in the wake of Edmond Hébert and Edouard Lartet, he carried out investigations on the Denise site. He described the geology of the surroundings of Le Puy and carefully examined the human bones, which had been found in the region fifteen years before. During his stay, he met with local scholars such as Auguste Aymard, Bertrand de Doue, Pichot-Dumazel and Félix Robert. He even met Georges Poulett Scrope who came to complete his observations of the volcanoes of this region.

Lyell’s Notebooks testify to the richness of his observations. He visited other geological and paleontological sites (including Polignac, Cussac, Espaly, Saint Privat d’Allier, Doue, and La Roche Rouge), drew multiple sketches and talked with many local people. The most compelling piece of ‘evidence’ is a photograph of the “museum block” (bought in 1844 by Auguste Aymard and Bertrand de Doue for the local museum) which is glued into Lyell’s Notebook 240; this illustrates the particular interest that Lyell had in these bones.

Photograph acquired by Lyell showing the Denise block containing human bones which is glued into Notebook 240 page 69

Moreover, he also took Notebook 240 with him to Aberdeen for the 29^th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, along with the famous photograph commissioned by Prestwich and Evans, and featuring the local workmen, showing the position of a stone axe into the sedimentary series of Abbeville (and for more information on that, please see Clive Gamble’s article featured in the Geological Society of London’s Blog Photographs of the Drift ). 

In his speech at Aberdeen (and later in his book Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man published 1863), Lyell referred to the Denise findings, acknowledging their authenticity and he praised and acknowledged the scientific validity of the discoveries Jacques Boucher de Perthes had made in Abbeville.

However, Lyell could not commit to the idea of ‘L’Homme de la Denise’ as a proof of the contemporaneity of the man, and the latest eruptions of the Massif Central, refusing to give them any value of antiquity.

Thank you Timothé for sharing your research – we wish you all the best for the completion of your Masters degree. Thanks also to Caroline Lam, Archivist & Records Manager at The Geological Society​. This enquiry initially drew our attention to the fact that there was an original photograph in the collection – in fact – one of only two glued into the Notebooks. We can now appreciate how important photography must have been to Lyell – and indeed to others working at that time. It has enabled us to ‘unearth’ many more related archives – we will revisit this topic!

Further Reading: 

Lyell Charles, 1859, “On the occurrences of works of human art in post-pliocene deposits”, Twenty-Ninth meeting of the British association for the advancement of science, London, Murray.

Lyell Charles, 1863, Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man, London, Murray.

I am now in my final week of the Lyell Project; time has flown by as myself and our exceptional interns have breezed through the plethora of material in this collection. Once they had finished their internships, my work turned to focus on some of the most challenging conservation work … the printed books!

Held within both the Lyell new accession and the University’s own collections, 22 printed volumes and a handful of special collection volumes were identified as being in need of interventive treatment. Several of the printed volumes had significant structural damage to their boards and spines. It was clear that through use, the tension the volume had undergone – that is the opening and closing – had led to this damage. I had to be careful that whatever method I chose to rectify this would be sympathetic to the remaining structure, and that new materials would need to be carefully introduced to support the volume structurally. All 22 volumes were at different stages of degradation; they all needed some form of structural repair to mitigate this damage. It was a similar picture with the special collection volumes, which were alike in binding style. This blog focuses on the worst of those bunch.

A small handful of the volumes were in the condition that you see Figure 1 below. Spines and boards were detached or even missing altogether. What was left, was falling apart, and the leather had little integrity.

Special Collection Volume before treatment (SC6373)

Figure 2- Diagram demonstrating the layers of the Honey Hollow technique

After some thought and research, I decided to use the ‘Honey Hollow’ technique to restore the structure of the volumes, which introduces new materials including a cast of the spine that acts as the new structure. The original spine is then attached to it, but no longer takes on any structural responsibility. This was the most feasible choice, as the condition and strength of the leather that was remaining was too poor. An illustration of the Honey Hollow technique can be seen in figure 2:

All book conservation work started with surface cleaning, consolidation of red rot and any corner repairs. Normally the first step is to lift the original spine piece from the volume. As this had already detached this was not needed. Once they had been safely stored, the casting could begin. The book was placed in a finishing press, and cling film was tightly wrapped around the spine to act as a barrier from any moisture whilst casting the spine. Pieces of 12gsm Japanese tissue were cut and attached layer by layer onto the exposed spine using wheat starch paste. Dependent on the width of the book, between 7-10 layers of tissue were required to make a strong cast.

Figure 3 – Casting of the spine using Japanese Tissue and wheat starch paste

Once the cast had dried, it was removed and trimmed. The book remained in the finishing press whilst the leather on the boards was carefully lifted using a leaf spatula. This is where the new Aerolinen fabric would be inserted. This fabric is commonly used in book conservation for both board reattachment and spine repairs. As it needed to wrap around the entire spine, a piece of the linen was pasted to the cast with a 1cm margin either side for insertion into the boards. The attachment to the spine needed to be strong, so EVA was the adhesive used for this part of the process.

Figure 4 – Left: Lifting of the board leather, Right: New Aerolinen cast

Aerolinen can be toned to make the original spine piece in other applications, however in this case it is best to cover the linen with a toned Japanese tissue of a heavier weight. A medium tone was chosen that could match the darker parts of the leather, rather than the lighter areas where it had degraded. Once attached and trimmed, it was now time to attach the original spine cover to the cast (making sure it was the right way up!).

Figure 5 – Toned Japanese Tissue cover of the cast

As often only two thirds of the original spine cover was left, some more acrylic painting had to be done to mask the toned paper. The degradation of the leather was much worse on the spine piece, so the toned Japanese tissue did not match it as well as the sides. After a little bit of painting, the overall look of the new cast was more in keeping with the original spine. All that was left to do was to repair any inner joints inside the book at the start and end of the volume with a light Japanese tissue.

Figure 6 – Special Collection Volume after treatment

The technique overall was a success; this volume and others like it are now safe to handle, and the repairs blend in with the original condition of the rest of the book. It was a really interesting technique to employ and, more importantly, a satisfying one.  This was a great experience for me to put both my ethical and technical skills to work to protect the volumes and retain what was left of the binding.

Claire

Its taking teams of multi-skilled people to open up the Charles Lyell collection! Read all about the Cultural Heritage Digitisation Service Team’s efforts to digitise the Notebooks on their latest blog here:

From Castles to Cradle: Photographing the Lyell Notebooks | Digital Imaging Unit (ed.ac.uk)

Its a long road ahead, but already 87 of the Notebooks are now completed and online. The images are being added to the University of Edinburgh’s Image website, LUNA, and you can find them here:

Search Results: All Fields similar to ‘Coll-203’ and Who equal to ‘Lyell, Charles (Sir)’ – University of Edinburgh

Thanks to all the CHDS staff – keep going!

It was a great pleasure for some of the Lyell project staff to welcome the Murray family to the Library, and to show them how their generous support is allowing the archive to be conserved, digitised and curated. The repairs and bespoke rehousing of the notebooks were found to be particularly interesting.

John, Claire, Pamela, Susan, David and colleagues look forward to updating the rest of our supporters as well as welcoming further donors to Edinburgh in the months ahead.