Reign of the Beast : The Atheist World of W. D. Saull and His Museum of Evolution.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Desmond, Adrian, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Archaeological museums and collections.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (678 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK : Open Book Publishers, 2024.

Summary:

"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."--Publisher's website.

Contents:

Preface / Adrian Desmond

1. Underground Evolution : Setting the Stage / Adrian Desmond

2. Introducing Saull / Adrian Desmond

3. From Eternity to Here: Blasphemy, Eternalism, and the Emerging Question of Origins / Adrian Desmond

4. From the Devil's Chaplain to That Dirty Little Jacobin / Adrian Desmond

5. Perfectibility / Adrian Desmond

6. Founding the Museum: June 1831 / Adrian Desmond

7. Monkey-Man : The Bristol Lecture 1833 / Adrian Desmond

8. The Antichrist and the Shaven Monkey / Adrian Desmond

9. Damned Monkeys / Adrian Desmond

10. An Appeal to the Revolutionary Enemy / Adrian Desmond

11. Creation on the Cheap / Adrian Desmond

12. Making Sense of the Museum / Adrian Desmond

13. A Purpose-built Museum : 1835 / Adrian Desmond

14. Satires on Saull / Adrian Desmond

15. Martyrs, Churches and Vestries / Adrian Desmond

16. Lease-holder of the New Moral World / Adrian Desmond

17. Halls of Science / Adrian Desmond

18. The Atheist Breakaway / Adrian Desmond

19. Backlash / Adrian Desmond

20. Peace and Harmony / Adrian Desmond

21. Secularism and Salvage / Adrian Desmond

22. British Aborigines / Adrian Desmond

23. Reforming Scientific Society / Adrian Desmond

24. Museum and Pantheon for the Masses / Adrian Desmond

25. Celebrating the Dead / Adrian Desmond

26. Provisions for the Afterlife / Adrian Desmond

27. Death and Dissolution / Adrian Desmond.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

1-80511-240-6

1-80511-241-4

OCLC:

1433109251