Latest news with #NorwichCathedral
The Independent
4 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
The big reason why we love Dippy the Dinosaur so much
Dippy – a complete cast of a diplodocus skeleton – is Britain's most famous dinosaur. It has resided at the Natural History Museum in London since 1905 and is now on show in Coventry where it is 'dinosaur-in-residence' at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. Dippy, the star attraction in the huge entrance hall of the Natural History Museum from 1979 to 2018, i s now on tour around the UK, with Coventry as its latest stop. It had previously been shown in Dorchester, Birmingham, Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle, Cardiff, Rochdale, Norwich and London. So what is it that makes Dippy so popular? I got a sense of the dino's appeal in August 2021 when I gave a lecture under the Dippy skeleton in Norwich Cathedral. The lecture was about dinosaur feathers and colours. It highlighted new research that identified traces of pigment in the fossilised feathers of birds and dinosaurs. I wanted to highlight the enormous advances in the ways we can study dinosaurs that had taken place in just a century. Before arriving, I thought that Dippy would fill the cathedral – after all the skeleton is 26 metres long and it had filled the length of the gallery at the Natural History Museum. However, Dippy was dwarfed by the gothic cathedral's scale. In fact, the building is so large that five Dippys could line up, nose to tail, from the great west door to the high altar at the east end. This sense of awe is one of the key reasons to study palaeontology – to understand how such extraordinary animals ever existed. I asked the Norwich cathedral canon why they had agreed to host the dinosaur, and he gave three answers. First, the dinosaur would attract lots of visitors. Second, Dippy is from the Jurassic period, as are the rocks used to construct the cathedral. Finally, for visitors it shared with the cathedral a sense of awe because of its huge size. Far from being diminished by its temporary home, visitors still walked around and under Dippy sensing its grandeur. Dippy arrived in London in 1905 as part of a campaign for public education by the Scottish-American millionaire Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919). At the time, there was a debate in academic circles about the function of museums and how far professionals should go in seeking to educate the public. There was considerable reticence about going too far. Many professors felt that showing dinosaurs to the public would be unprofessional in instances where they moved from description of facts into the realm of speculation. They also did not want to risk ridicule by conveying unsupported information about the appearance and lifestyle of the great beasts. Finally, many professors simply did not see such populism as any part of their jobs. But, at that time, the American Museum of Natural History was well established in New York and its new president, Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857-1935) was distinctly a populist. He sponsored the palaeo artist Charles Knight (1874-1953), whose vivid colour paintings of dinosaurs were the glory of the museum and influential worldwide. Osborn was as hated by palaeontology professors as he was feted by the public. Carnegie pumped his steel dollars into many philanthropic works in his native Scotland and all over America, including the Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. When he heard that a new and complete skeleton of a diplodocus had been dug up in Wyoming, he bought it and brought it to his new museum. It was named as a new species, Diplodocus carnegiei. On a visit to Carnegie's Scottish residence, Skibo Castle, King Edward VII saw a sketch of the bones and Carnegie agreed to donate a complete cast of the skeleton to Britain's Natural History Museum. The skeleton was copied by first making rubber moulds of each bone in several parts, then filling the moulds with plaster to make casts and colouring the bones to make them look real. The 292 pieces were shipped to London in 36 crates and opened to the public in May 1905. Carnegie's original Dippy skeleton only went on show in Pittsburgh in 1907, after the new museum building had been constructed. Carnegie had got the royal bug and donated further complete Dippy casts to the great natural history museums in Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Bologna, St Petersburg, Madrid, Munich, Mexico City and La Plata in Argentina. Each of these nations, except France, had a king or tsar at the time. The skeletons went on show in all these locations, except Munich, and Dippy has been seen by many millions of people in the past 120 years. Dippy's appeal Dippy's appeal is manifold. It's huge – we like our dinosaurs big. It has been seen up close by more people around the world than any other dinosaur. It also opens the world of science to many people. Evolution, deep time, climate change, origins, extinction and biodiversity are all big themes that link biology, geology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Also, since 1905, palaeontology has moved from being a largely speculative subject to the realms of testable science. Calculations of jaw functions and limb movements of dinosaurs can be tested and challenged. Hypotheses about physiology, reproduction, growth and colour can be based on evidence from microscopic study of bones and exceptionally preserved tissues, and these analyses can be repeated and refuted. Dippy has witnessed over a century of rapid change and its appeal is sure to continue for the next.
BBC News
02-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Postcard sent by Norfolk war heroine Edith Cavell up for auction
A rare postcard written and sent by the nurse Edith Cavell to her mother is to be sold at auction. The postcard is addressed to Mrs Cavell at 24 College Rd, Norwich, and reads in pencil: "Mundesley much changed & much grown."Cavell is celebrated for her compassion during World War One, treating soldiers from both sides without discrimination and helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium. She was executed in postcard is due to go under the hammer on 18 June and is expected to exceed an opening bid set at 1,000 euros. The auctioneers, International Autograph Auctions Europe S.L in Malaga, Spain, say the postcard most likely dates from around the time of the outbreak of World War note has "some extremely minor, light age wear" and the image is of the chapel on Mundesley High Street. Cavell was born in Swardeston, near Norwich, Norfolk, where her father was the local reverend. She returned to Norfolk when her father became unwell and helped nurse him back to health, which is what inspired her to become a nurse. In 1907, she travelled to Brussels to help run a new nursing school. She helped hundreds of soldiers escape as part of the Belgian underground was executed by a German firing squad for treason on 12 October 1915 at the age of 49, and her body was later returned to her home is buried within the grounds of Norwich Cathedral at Life's Green, next to the cathedral's St Saviour's Chapel, built as a memorial to Norfolk's fallen in World War in the autograph letters, manuscripts and historical documents auction, the postcard has been listed alongside autographs by Gingers Rogers and Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Laurence most expensive item in the auction is a Radisson Pierre-Esprit manuscript, dating back to the 17th Century, which is estimated to sell for up to 90,000 euros. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
08-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Norfolk residents commemorate VE Day 80 years on
Flags have been flown and wreaths have been laid as people in Norfolk have come together to mark the 80th anniversary of VE have been held in Great Yarmouth to commemorate and honour the memory of those who lost their lives in World War were invited to a flag raising ceremony at the Town Hall followed by a memorial service and wreath laying in St George's Park. On Thursday evening, the beacon in Anchor Gardens on the seafront is due to be one of thousands across the UK that is lit. Earlier on Thursday, a two-minute silence was held during a VE Day service, with the mayor of Great Yarmouth and members of the Royal British Legion joining residents to pay their respects. Elsewhere in the county, Clenchwarton Primary School pupils created a piece of artwork made from 200 coloured flags in the shape of a Marshland High School, pupils shared their family stories from the Beatty, a history teacher at the school, said: "I grew up listening to stories of wartime and the Blitz from my grandparents. Sadly, for the next generation this isn't going to be possible, so it's important that we continue to mark these days so the significance of those who fought is never lost."A special service has been held at Norwich Cathedral, and it will join other cathedrals and churches across the UK in ringing its bells at about 18:30 BST. A VE Day Commemoration Service will take place at the cathedral on Sunday afternoon. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
