Re: Hello may I join in? (Hawkins)

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

On Sun, 17 Dec 2000 12:43:03  
 Stephen wrote:

>The Crystal Palace dinosaurs were built by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins
>in 1854.  The Crystal Palace itself was originally erected in Hyde Park
>as the home of the Great Exhibition of 1851.  The Palace was then moved
>to Sydenham (now known as Crystal Palace), where it was used as an
>exhibition centre until it burned to the ground in 1936.  It has been
>described as the Millennium Dome of its day, and the dinosaur figures
>were part of a "prehistoric zone".
>
>In addition to the three dinosaurs (Megalosaurus, Hylaeosaurus and
>Iguanodon) there are models of a mosasaur, an ichthyosaur, some
>plesiosaurs, some labyrinthodonts, and assorted extinct mammals.  They
>are made out of brick, iron and plaster (although the original
>Hylaeosaurus head has been replaced with a fibreglass one).

As most of you probably are aware of, Hawkins was also commissioned to build a 
large "Palaeozoic Museum" in New York's Central Park.  The plans were later 
killed due to financial reasons, but sculptor Allen Debus made a nice sculpture 
a few years back that showed what, based on his research, Hawkins' Central Park 
exhibit may have looked like.  

You can see a photo of it at:
http://www.geocities.com/stegob/burpeedebusmodel.html

Allen Debus and Steve McCarthy also wrote a nice paper about the project.  
Here's a quick ref:

Debus, Allen A. and Steve McCarthy.  A Scene from American Deep Time: New 
York's Palaeozoic Museum-Revisited.  The Mosasaur, 6: 105-115.

I read the paper awhile back, and it's a nice account of all of Hawkins' plans, 
with a lot of photos.  

Steve

---
Steve Brusatte
Dino Land Paleontology
http://www.geocities.com/stegob
---



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