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Courtyard Late 2019: Behind the Scenes Tour of the Library

GSL LibraryOn Friday 19 July, the Library took part in the annual Burlington House Courtyard Lates event, opening our doors for behind-the-scenes tours.  This was a chance for visitoris to see rooms of the Society not usually open to the public and some highlights from our collections. The tour included a visit to our Map Room with its collection of 40,000 geological maps from around the world.

To mark the Geological Society's Year of Carbon and the courtyard theme of ELEMENTS, we looked at the importance of the coal industry to the development of the science of geology in the 19th Century.

To close the evening the Archivist revealed some treasures from the archive, including the Society's meteorite and a 1960s computer programme which was used to create the 'Bullard Fit', showing how continents fitted together.


Image Gallery

Introducing the William Smith map The Lower Library, the Society's original main Library when it moved to Burlington House in 1874 The Upper Library, which used to be Society's museum until becoming the main Library in 1911 Geological Society Library The Lyell Room Visitors enjoy the Map Room at the Geological Society, with a talk from the Map Librarian A large map of the Ural mountains was on display Showing how the flat maps are stored in the metal cabinets The fangs of the map cabinets The map collection contains over 40,000 sheets In the Council Room, an archive display included the chance to hold the Society's meteorite The object is a fragment of a pallasite meteorite from a valley west of Imilac, Atacama Desert, Chile, found in 1822 It was presented to the Geological Society by Woodbine Parish as a 'Specimen of native iron from the province of Atacama in Peru', 6 June 1829 All visitors had the opportunity to hold this rare specimen A display of material from the archives Items on display included William Smith's Geological Map of Bath, 1799, and Tables of Strata Also displayed was 'Geology, Familiarly Illustrated' by Mrs C. M. Webber, 1859, and 'Ideal Section of a Portion of the Earth's Crust' by William Buckland, 1858 A final highlight was a 1960s computer programme which was used to create the 'Bullard Fit'