Author To Discuss ‘Secret Life’ of Natural History Museum

Award-winning author Richard Fortey will give a talk and sign copies of his book while on campus on Thursday, Sept. 11.

Award-winning author Richard Fortey will give a talk and sign copies of his book while on campus on Thursday, Sept. 11.

Fortey’s talk will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Ave. The talk is open to the public free of charge. A book signing will follow. His talk is part of the 2008-2009 John H. Ostrom Program Series.

Fortey describes his new book, “Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum,” as a “museum of the mind,” as well as a behind-the-scenes guide to London’s Natural History Mu­seum whose contents are described within the pages. These include plants from the voyage of Captain Cook; barnacles to which Charles Darwin devoted years of study; and hidden accursed jewels.

Fortey will use the museum’s hallways and collection rooms as a framework for his talk in which he will explore the social history of the scientific accomplishments of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

A senior paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, Fortey has been a fellow of the Royal Society since 1997.

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