The Moore Museum
Images of Charles Moore's 'Free Museum' in Bath (c.1860). (Archive ref: LDGSL/802/6/5). Moore is standing by one of his cabinets in the image on the right.
In 1853, Moore became a member of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. He offered to deposit his fossil collection with them and was given use of their large rooms in order to display it. He proposed to turn it into a free museum and from this point the Moore Collection was founded.
Moore was an ardent fossil hunter, with a novel and painstaking approach to adding to his collection. Moore would often exploit local quarries, collecting or purchasing large quantities of rock and earth for hand sorting.
A particular example of this occurred in 1858 when he purchased 3 tons of clay from a site near Frome. After 3 years of meticulous sorting, he was rewarded with 27 mesozoic mammal teeth, 70,000 shark teeth and around one million other specimens, all of which became part of his collection.
Not only did Moore’s vast collection feature original and rare species, but it was a thorough representation of the geology of the Somerset and Avon region. The quality of the collection was evident from the growing praise and admiration he received from his peers.
“Probably there is no provincial museum in the country which has its geological history so well represented as Bath Museum, and when we consider that this is due to the indomitable perseverance of one man, our interest and admiration for the Moore geological collection becomes greatly increased.”
Annotated subscription list for the purchase of Charles Moore's collection, 1882-1883. (Archive ref: LDGSL/802/6/1). Click here to enlarge.
The importance of his collection becomes even more apparent when considering that many of the mines and quarries that Moore visited in order to procure his specimens very soon became inaccessible and will never again be studied.
After Moore’s death, his fossil collection was bought from his widow by an appeal fund that raised over £1,200. This fund was collected by Reverend Henry Hoyte Winwood, who showed a keen interest in the geological collection housed at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, and was instrumental in ensuring that the Moore Collection remained there.
The history of the collection has been somewhat chequered as a combination of relocations, disinterest, local government reorganisation and war caused some loss and damage, and contributed to periods when the collection was all but forgotten.
Despite the collection’s changeable conditions over the years, interest in Moore’s fascinating ‘Museum’ continues. In 2015, a £250,000 grant was awarded by the Leverhulme Trust for research and three-dimensional scanning of hundreds of specimens held in the museum. Find out more on the Geological Society blog