Royal Holloway and Bedford New College
Open: to the public by appointment only. Contact departmental
secretary or curator
Governing body: RHBNC University of London
Enquiries: John Wright (Departmental Curator)
Size: estimated at 150,000 + (specimens)
Content:
A very diverse collections of rocks, minerals, fossils, rock thin sections,
mineral polished sections, micropalaeontological slides, and historic
archive material relating to the former collections of the constituent
colleges.
Incorporated within the department are the combined collections of Chelsea
College, Kings College, and Bedford College (all University of London)
which were transferred here in 1985.
The collections are still used for teaching and research. The more modern
collections are mostly of foreign origin, but there are also significant
collections of 19th.-20th. century British minerals and stratigraphic
collections of rocks and fossils.
There is only a limited amount of local (Egham) or Surrey material amongst
this, and there appears to be no discreet collections to which it would
be easy to refer to for this purpose.
Collectors and collections:
KINGS COLLEGE
James Tennant FGS. Collections presented to Kings College (1839-1858):
cabinets of minerals (approx.5000) with descriptive catalogue, collection
of rocks from the Harz Mts.,Germany , stratigraphic collection of British
fossils.
Prof.William Thomas Gordon (1884-1950) minerals (collection combined
with Tennant = 'Gordon-Tennant' coll.)
Henry William Bristow (1842) minerals
Prof.Daniell
Robert Allan minerals
Jones collection minerals (post 1850)
BEDFORD COLLEGE
Morton-Summers bequest (July 1903-June 1904) a large number of
minerals and rocks
Prof.Basil King collection
CHELSEA
South Western Polytechnic Field Club collection and archives
A.C.Scott Lower Carboniferous plants (worldwide and Midland Valley
of England)
Prof.A.J.Smith sedimentary rocks from India
J.K.Wright Oxfordian ammonites of N.Yorks, Dorset, and Skye
A.J.Barber Timor (Permo-Trias) invertebrate fossils
and regional geology of Japan and Indonesia, French and Italian Alps,Channel
Islands
R.C.O.Gill igneous and metamorphic petrology of Greenland and worldwide
Bob Wood Irish and French rocks (1968)
W.E.Smith Dorset and Devon Cenomanian (Lower Chalk) 1958
and other research student collections including:
A.K.C.Lee corallian sediments from Yorks.
A.Heyes important coll. of anorthosites from Harris 1977
OTHER COLLECTIONS (not identified with former college(s)):
Prof.M.Menzies ultrabasic mantle rocks (worldwide)
Dr.A.Stuart Carboniferous oil shale fossils (Midland Valley of
Scotland) etc.)
Prof. M. Audley Charles Indonesian rocks and fossils (plus the
collections of Indonesian material of 12 former research students)
Richard Barstow minerals from SW England etc.
figured echinoid specimens from Tertiary of Malta
molluscs from Bracklesham/Barton Beds of Hants.
Page last updated November 2006
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