Darwin the Geologist

This February, Museum Collections Assistant Matt Riley and Artist Catherine Watling visited Cherry Trees Age Concern Centre in Cambridge to question what motivates people to collect. Together they found that collections can teach us about the world around us and about the people who collected them.

From an early age Charles Darwin was an avid collector. Throughout his life he was fascinated by the natural world around him, so he collected specimens, made observations and took detailed notes.

The pensioners from Cherry Trees Age Concern Centre were asked to bring in some of their own collections and to describe them to the group. The collections varied from cuddly sheep to postage stamps and everyone had a different reason for collecting. Many of the objects held memories for the owners’ of holidays, friends or late relatives. Others simply loved their objects for the way they looked.

Visitors to the sessions were also shown specimens from the Sedgwick Museum handling collection. They were able to touch and hold fossils up to 300 million years old and were asked to identify them if they could.

The fossils ranged from the very familiar like snail shells and leaves, to the relatively unfamiliar like trilobites and belemnites.

Matt Riley, Collections Assistant at the Museum said, “It was great to see them so enthusiastic and still keen to learn new things.”

These workshops inspired Catherine Watling’s ‘Collect’ art installation which can be viewed at the Sedgwick Museum from Saturday 14^th March.