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oapen-20.500.12657-902482024-05-15T10:22:16Z Reign of the Beast Desmond, Adrian Evolution theories;W. D. Saull;Science Museums in London;Geology;1830s radical thinking;Atheism;Co-Operation;Fossils;Dinosaurs;Prehistoric Archaeology thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RB Earth sciences::RBX Palaeontology thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRY Alternative belief systems::QRYA Humanist and secular alternatives to religion::QRYA5 Agnosticism and atheism thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHB General and world history thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JN Education::JNB History of education In the 1830s, decades before Darwin published the Origin of Species, a museum of evolution flourished in London. Reign of the Beast pieces together the extraordinary story of this lost working-man's institution and its enigmatic owner, the wine merchant W. D. Saull. A financial backer of the anti-clerical Richard Carlile, the ‘Devil's Chaplain’ Robert Taylor, and socialist Robert Owen, Saull outraged polite society by putting humanity’s ape ancestry on display. He weaponized his museum fossils and empowered artisans with a knowledge of deep geological time that undermined the Creationist base of the Anglican state. His geology museum, called the biggest in Britain, housed over 20,000 fossils, including famous dinosaurs. Saull was indicted for blasphemy and reviled during his lifetime. After his death in 1855, his museum was demolished and he was expunged from the collective memory. Now multi-award-winning author Adrian Desmond undertakes a thorough reading of Home Office spy reports and subversive street prints to re-establish Saull's pivotal place at the intersection of the history of geology, atheism, socialism, and working-class radicalism. 2024-05-15T10:21:05Z 2024-05-15T10:21:05Z 2024 book 9781805112396 9781805112402 9781805112440 9781805112426 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/90248 eng application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International obp.0393.pdf https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/OBP.0393 Open Book Publishers 10.11647/OBP.0393 10.11647/OBP.0393 23117811-c361-47b4-8b76-2c9b160c9a8b 9781805112396 9781805112402 9781805112440 9781805112426 678 Cambridge open access
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In the 1830s, decades before Darwin published the Origin of Species, a museum of evolution flourished in London. Reign of the Beast pieces together the extraordinary story of this lost working-man's institution and its enigmatic owner, the wine merchant W. D. Saull. A financial backer of the anti-clerical Richard Carlile, the ‘Devil's Chaplain’ Robert Taylor, and socialist Robert Owen, Saull outraged polite society by putting humanity’s ape ancestry on display. He weaponized his museum fossils and empowered artisans with a knowledge of deep geological time that undermined the Creationist base of the Anglican state. His geology museum, called the biggest in Britain, housed over 20,000 fossils, including famous dinosaurs. Saull was indicted for blasphemy and reviled during his lifetime. After his death in 1855, his museum was demolished and he was expunged from the collective memory. Now multi-award-winning author Adrian Desmond undertakes a thorough reading of Home Office spy reports and subversive street prints to re-establish Saull's pivotal place at the intersection of the history of geology, atheism, socialism, and working-class radicalism.
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