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Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, author, sculptor and naturalist, was born in London on February 8, 1807. He was educated at the college of St. Aloysius and studied art under the sculptor William Behnes. After 1827 he devoted himself to the study of natural history, and after 1852 the study of geology. From 1842-1847 he was employed in making models of living animals at Knowsley Park for the Earl of Derby. In 1851 he served as assistant superintendent of the London World's Fair. The following year he was appointed by the Crystal Palace Company to restore the external forms of the extinct animals to their natural gigantic size, and then, under the direction of Sir Richard Owen, he devoted three and a half years to the construction of thirty-three life size models of prehistoric animals for the Crystal Palace park. It was during this time, in December 1853, that he gave a dinner to twenty literary and scientific men, whom he seated within his model of the Iguanadon. In 1868 he came to New York where he lectured on science, and began work on models of prehistoric animals for Central Park, as authorized by its Commissioners. He constructed a skeleton of the Hadrosaurus foulkii, America's first known dinosaur, using fossil bones and plaster reconstructions, which he gave to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in return for its generosity in providing him with specimens to work from. The Academy's mount was an immediate sensation. It was the first mounted dinosaur in the world, and Hawkins soon received orders for copies from Princeton, Chicago and the Smithsonian (Hawkins's work at Princeton University also included oil paintings of prehistoric creatures). Unfortunately, in 1871 William "Boss" Tweed ordered the Central Park museum's foundations plowed under, claiming that the price tag for the museum would be too high. When Hawkins persisted, Tweed sent vandals into the museum to destroy Hawkins's models, and later his molds. Hawkins returned to England at this time, and later came back to the United States to lecture on popular science. He died in 1894 in obscurity, as no known obituary of him has been found. He was a member of the Linnean Society (1843), the Royal Geographic Society (1854), and the Academy of Natural Sciences (1868).
This album was evidently begun by Hawkins in 1872 and added to intermittently, the last datable entry being 1878. In its entirety, the album contains 56 items, including manuscripts, clippings, and images. This finding aid contains only the images found within the album. These images consist of 37 items: 16 photographic sepia prints, 10 prints, 3 b&w photographic prints, 3 wash drawings, 2 ink drawings, 2 watercolor drawings, and 1 pencil sketch. The images themselves measure from 6 x 4 cm. to 29 x 44 cm., and are mounted on album pages measuring 29 x 24 cm. Images include photographs of Hawkins, his New York studio, reconstructed skeletons, shanties in 1868 New York City, the Crystal Palace, and a rare photograph of Hawkins standing beneath his reconstructed Hadrosaurus foulkii in the Academy, when it was located at Broad and Sansom Streets; one of the invitations to the dinner in the Iguanadon; an antitreatise for Darwin's
The album shell is a commercial printed volume with a title page bearing the imprint of D. Appleton, 443 & 445 Broadway, N.Y. The paper is watermarked "Whatman 1865". The binding is padded paper-covered boards, dark brown with blind stamped panels. "Album" is printed in gilt on sides and spine; the end papers are nonpareil marbled paper. The binding measures 12 inches tall by 9.5 inches wide and 2.25 inches thick.
Arranged as items are found in the album. The contents were not originally arranged by chronology or subject matter, but fall into these categories (listed chronologically):
Information on reproduction rights and services available in the library or on the
Cite as: Collection 803. Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins Album. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Gift of Harriet B. West of Richmond, Virginia, 1985.
The album had been in Harriett B. West's family library but nothing is known of its provenance. Mrs. Barbara Houck, a freind of Miss West's, acted as intermediary, bringing the album to the Academy in October 1985, but the gift was not finalized until December.
Finding aid created by Mary Hammer, 2003.
Baird, Donald.
Bramwell, Valerie and Peck, Robert M.
Portrait of Hawkins, seated, head leaning on left hand. Mounted in between two pages, with painted gold and red ruled border as frame.
"This photo portrait appears to have been removed from its card for album mounting. There is no photographer's signature or stamp on front margin or on back (I held it up to the light). I tentatively identify this as the photo known to have been taken at Academy expense by Frederick Gutekunst, 712 Arch Street, Philadelphia, in late August or early September of 1875 (see BWH letter to Nolan, 8 Sept. 1875, ANSP MS Coll. 567). No print of the Gutekunst photo can be identified in the ANSP archives today, so item 1 is evidently unique." -- Baird.
007100.
Portrait of Hawkins, seated, with right hand caught in jacket opening.
"Possibly used as frontispiece [of album] - size fits slits in leaf" -- on verso.
Kulke possibly Ulke, a well-known Washington photographer.
007101.
6. Recto
6. Verso
6. Attached
"Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins requests the honor of Mr. Joseph Prestwick's company at dinner in the mould of the Iguanodon at the Crystal Palace on Saturday evening December the thirty-first at five o'clock - 1853. an answer will oblige" -- on item.
Title continues: "Given by Mr. B. Waterhouse Hawkins".
Depiction of the dinner held at the Crystal Palace on December 31, 1853, addressed to the geologist Joseph Prestwich. Labeled with a hand written description below image.
"Resembles but differs from the wood engraving in the
Depicts a dozen different primates, all labeled, all but two as skeletons with wash to suggest complete appearance. Corners rounded and sides trimmed to give decorative effect. Mounted on a heavier piece cut to same pattern, but smaller, then mounted to the page.
"An ingenious and labored anti-Darwinian exercise inspired by
A dozen primates are shown in poses corresponding to item 11b, within a rustic border of saplings and vines. Homo sapiens in the center holds a wine bottle aloft, as he dances arm in arm with a bear holding a bunch of grapes. Mounted under an album page with an opening framed with a ruled border to resemble item 11b.
13. Recto
"Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Residence of George W. Childs, Esq. From Ashmead's History of Delaware County, 1884." -- on item.
"'Wootton,' is evidently a reprint leaf from an American 'puff book' of 1884, and is extraneous to the album." -- Baird.
13. Verso
Mounted on page recto of item 15.
Tree trunk with eagle on either side and central branch with bald eagle, flanked by American flags and surmounting shield.
"The central eagle-on-shield was clearly inspired by the shield-on-pole campaign perch of "Old Abe", celebrated eagle mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Regiment in the Civil War.
Mounted on page verso of item 14.
"Item 15, totally out of sequence here, is a photo of the Penge Park grounds of the Crystal Palace ... , evidently during construction in the spring of 1854, with some of Hawkins's statues installed (Iguanodon at far right). A companion photo (same photographer, same day, further to the right) is in the BMNH archive (#1156.242 ... )." -- Baird.
007102.
Prints mounted on page recto of item 17.
"Four photos of zoo buildings, perhaps intended for submission to the Central Park Commissioners as models for BWH's proposed zoo installation. Photo 16C is evidently of the Regent's Park Zoo, London, and the zebra? ... is the famous quagga mare (Equus quagga Gmelin) that died on July 7, 1872. See Dorcas MacClintock, 'Professor Marsh's Quagga Mare,'
007103-6.
"This is a line print, evidently for the artist's preliminary proof (shading and human figures were added subsequently) for the lithograph in the 13th Annual Report of the Central Park Commissioners (1869) (reproduced in Desmond's
Mounted on page verso of item 16.
Photograph has been retouched to emphasize skeleton, and around Hawkins's[?] figure. Mounted on black paper with title in gold in Hawkins's hand, then mounted on page with a ruled gold background.
"Original photograph, heavily retouched, of man (?Hawkins) standing under mounted skeleton of Hadrosaurus foulkii in ANSP. Prints of this photo were tipped into copies of the Central Park Commissioners' Report; a duplicate is in the BMNH archives. This photo is mentioned (BWH to Leidy, 22 Feb. 1869, ANSP MS 1) as being furnished to Harper & Bros. for Prof. Alexander Winchell's book
007107.
Print is a double page spread, folded down the center and tipped into the album. Described by Hawkins in a letter to Joseph Henry, 10 April 1871 (SI Henry Papers 54412).
"Item 20 is a photoprint of a design submitted by BWH to the Smithsonian Institution under contract of 1871 (the original is apparently not in the Smithsonian archives; either it or a duplicate photoprint is in the British Museum's Hawkins papers) ... " -- Baird.
Print is a double page spread, folded down the center and tipped into the album. Gold ruled border painted around item. Described by Hawkins in a letter to Joseph Henry, 10 April 1871 (SI Henry Papers 54412). Perhaps intended for the Smithsonian.
007108.
Mounted on blue-ruled paper and folded down center, tipped into album on guard.
"Item 22, out of sequence here, is evidently an original, earlier draft of item 17 (which shows improvement in composition). The same animals are present except that a nondescript replaces the Elasmosaurus -- which might not yet have been ready for restoration, as Cope (1869, Synopsis, p. 52) noted that Hawkins had helped him prepare the skeleton." -- Baird.
"New York City" -- on item.
Print mounted on album page with solid painted gilt border.
"Item 23, photoprint of unlocated original, is a grand design for the end wall of a museum hall, but where? Style of rendering is closest to item 21, so most likely the Smithsonian is intended; however, this is not one of the three drawings cited in BWH's letter to Henry. The roundel of
007109.
Mounted on page with painted gilt border.
007110.
Figure of Hawkins has been added at left, as if standing in front of elk.
007111.
Title continues: "found in the cave, called Barena of the Cavillon, on the railroad from Mentone.
Mounted on page with a ruled border.
"ITems 27-29 testify to BWH's interest in ancient man in the light of Darwin's theory. The find depicted is the Cro-Magnon 'Grimaldi Man' found in a cave on the Italian Mediterranean coast just east of Monaco ('Sardinia' in BWH's caption is an error copied from or repeated in 'Anchor's' article)." -- Baird.
007113
Mounted on page with ruled border.
007112.
Double page spread, mounted on page with fold in center.
"Approved H. Hilton, Sept. 19, 1870 to be executed & carried out by Prof. Hawkins. Mr. Cram will plan detail [?] workmen for the purpose" -- on item.
"A photocopy of Hawkins's ground plan and elevation for the proposed Central Park Zoo; the original may still exist or it may have disappeared during the fall of the Tweed Ring. The approver's signature is that of the new (as of 1 May 1870) Park Commissioner, Tweed henchman Henry Hilton, who later ordered the destruction of Hawkins's models." -- Baird.
Title in cartouche below image, in Hawkins's hand. Mounted on page with a red and gold ruled border.
007115.
Title pencilled in Hawkins's hand.
"Then intended zoological gardens" -- on item in Hawkins's hand.
007116.
Title in ink in Hawkins's hand. Print is mounted on commercial board labeled "Rockwood, Photographer, 839 Broadway, N.Y." Mount tipped into album on guard.
007117.
Mounted on page, with gold ruled border.
" Items 35, 41 and 42 are priceless documents, the only known photos of BWH's studio in the Central Park Arsenal. Our previous information was limited to a lithograph in the Park Commissioners' Annual Report and a faked-up plagiarization of it published in Harper's Magazine. Item 35 shows (center) the mounted cast of Hadrosaurus foulkii, with duplicate casts of the ilium, femur & vertebrae below it; mounted cast of 'Laelaps' = Dryptosaurus aquilunguis with missing parts unrestored except for mirror-image copies of limb bones; at left and right, sections of mold for statue of reclining Hadrosaurus; on nail keg below Hadrosaurus skeleton, original or cast of type specimen of Ornithotarsus immanis Cope. Recent skeletons being used as models were probably borrowed from the Academy of Natural Sciences (ostrich, emu, etc.). Photo can be dated about or after 20 May 1869, when Rev. Samuel Lockwood wrote to O.C. Marsh with reference to the Ornithotarsus specimen: 'Mr. Hawkins at Central Park has taken a mould of the big bone. Before I gave him permission to do so, I exacted the promise that a cast should be made for you, which he cheerfully agreed to.' (This cast and the original, purchased in 1886, are YPM 3221 at Yale) ... Item 35 is our only evidence for BWH's mounting of the Dryptosaurus." -- Baird.
007118.
Mounted on page. Item 42 mounted on verso.
"Item 41 dates later than item 35, as the Hadrosaurus shows a full set of caudal chevrons and has the ilium in its final (wrong-end-foremost) configuration, whereas in item 35 the ilium on the skeleton is correct while the duplicate below it is articulated backwards to the femur. Leidy (1865) had this right, Cope (Aug. 1869) had it wrong, and Hawkins made the mistake of changing his reconstruction to agree with Cope! He had it wrong also on the Academy mount of 1868. Summer of 1869 is the probable date of item 41. The reclining Hadrosaurus sculpture looks rough, probably because the mold sections have been pulled (they are nowhere in evidence). The Irish Elk sculpture has been dismembered for molding. On partition at right, full sized drawings of limb bones of Dryptosaurus. Note the recent alligator skeleton, probably borrowed from the ANSP." -- Baird.
007119.
Mounted on verso of page. Item 41 mounted on recto.
"Item 42 is earlier than item 35, as it shows the completed sculpture of the reclining Hadrosaurus (with sculptor [Hawkins]) before molding." -- Baird.
007120.
Copy of a painting. Found loose in the album.
"This painting ... is PP 332 in the Princeton Portraits inventory; unsigned and undated. Shown are male and female Megaceros hibernicus (Megaloceros giganteus) similar to those modeled from the Palaeozoic Museum, plus two Homo sapiens." -- Baird.
Copy of a painting. Found loose in the album.
"PP 339 ... thought to be Pliocene in Hawkins's day. The animals are Colossochelys (Testudo) atlas, Elephas (Stegodon) ganesa, and Sivatherium giganteum. Unsigned and undated ... " -- Baird.
Copy of a pencil drawing. Found loose in the album.
Copy of a painting. Found loose in the album.
Rocky gorge with waterfall divided by rock promontory in center. Outlines of various fish are painted on rocks at lower left. Original a wash drawing.
"Background copied from a photo of Niagara Falls as explained in BWH to Nolan, 8 Sept. 1875 (Coll. 567). Slabs with fishes copied from Hugh Miller's "The Old Red Sandstone" (7th ed., 1858) and "seraphim" eurypterids. The fishes are: 2 Osteolepis major, Diplacanthus striatus, Cheiracanthus microlepidotus over Cheirolepis cummingiae, 3 Cephalaspis lyelli, 3 Osteolepis microlepidotus, 2 Holoptychius nobilissimus at tip, Osteolepis major over Glyptolepis leptoperus, Diplacanthus striatus." -- Baird.
Copy of an ink and wash drawing. Found loose in the album.
"The dual date of 1873/1868 indicates that it originated as a design for the Palaeozoic Museum and was reworked for some unidentified project that Hawkins undertook between his Smithsonian and Princeton contracts. The background is the columnar basalt of Fingal's Cave, Staffa; the toothed pterosaur is evidently intended to be Ornithocheirus." -- Baird.
Found loose in the album.
"1873 Andersons School of Natural History Penekese Island" -- on item.
"The Dog "major" transferred by John Anderson Esq. with Penekese Island to the Anderson school of Natural History. Drawn from life immediately prior to the execution of his sentence of Death for Insubordination to the new inhabitants of the Island. By B. Waterhouse Hawkins F.L.S.F.G.S. at Penekese Island July 1873" -- on attached sheet, in Hawkins's hand.
Found loose in the album.
"The sculptor's calipers and damp cloth strongly suggest that this bust is not a cast but the original in clay, and presumably by Hawkins." -- Baird.
007121.
Found loose in the album. Scrap of a sketch, perhaps for a border, with a bird or bat-like figure at bottom with wings upraised.