London - marble ornamental arch, Geological Museum - postcard c.1930s

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Ornamental Arch in British Marbles - entrance to the Geological Museum (interior view) - marbles come from Isle of Purpeck, Devon and Co, Galway
• Publisher:  Geological Survey and Museum, London
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

Please ask if you need any other information and I will do the best I can to answer.

Image may be low res for illustrative purposes - if you need a higher definition image then please contact me and I may be able to send one.

------------------------------------------------

Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal ONLY (unless otherwise stated) please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

----------------------------------------------

Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

*************

The Geological Museum (originally The Museum of Practical Geology, started in 1835)^[1] is one of the oldest single science museums in the world and now part of the Natural History Museum in London. It transferred from Jermyn Street to Exhibition Road, South Kensington in 1935 in a building designed by Sir Richard Allison and John Hatton Markham^[2] of the Office of Works.^[3]

The Museum of Practical Geology was established in 1837 at a building in Craig's Court, Whitehall, at the suggestion of Henry De la Beche first Director General of the Geological Survey. The museum's library was founded by de la Bache in 1843, mainly in the form of donations from his own library.

Larger premises soon became necessary, and a design for a new building was commissioned from James Pennethorne. This, built on a long narrow site with frontages in Piccadilly and Jermyn Street, housed, as well as galleries, a library, lecture theatre, and offices and laboratories for the Survey. It was constructed between 1845 and 1849, and was finally opened by Prince Albert in May 1851.^[4]

The purpose of the museum, as summarised in the Descriptive Guide, published in 1867, was:

to exhibit the rocks minerals, and organic remains, illustrating the maps and sections of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom: also to exemplify the applications of the Mineral productions of these Islands to the uses of purposes of use and ornament^[5]

The collections were accordingly arranged in two main sections covering natural materials found in the United Kingdom, and industrial products made from them. There were three secondary sections, covering mechanical appliances used to process raw materials, specimens of historical products, and foreign materials imported in their raw state.^[5]

In the summer of 1933, the Geological Museum, still at its old location, was the focus of worldwide attention when it served as the venue of the London Economic Conference, bringing together the representatives of 66 nations in a failed effort to end the then-prevalent global depression.

When the museum was reopened in 1935 following the move to Exhibition Road in South Kensington, it became well known for the many dioramas (three-dimensional paintings) used to interpret geology and one or two mining techniques. These have largely been dismantled since the Natural History Museum took over the Museum in 1986.

In 1965, the museum had been merged with the British Geological Survey and Overseas Geological Surveys, under the name ""Institute of Geological Sciences"". In 1971 the Museum employed the late designer James Gardiner to design and produce The Story of the Earth, which was acknowledged as a significant breakthrough in science museum design and critically acclaimed and imitated worldwide. It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II and became well known for the huge reproduction of a rock face, cast from site in Scotland, and for its planetarium, active volcano model and earthquake machine.

Between 1971 and 1974 the museum formed its own design team which, working closely with the scientists and technicians, produced a series of temporary and permanent exhibitions starting with the re-presentation of the gem collection and then, with a design team led by Giles Velarde (Head of Exhibition Design from 1974–1988), produced Early Days of Geology in Britain, Black Gold, Britain Before Man, Journey to the Planets, British Fossils, Pebbles, Treasures of the Earth and finally British Offshore Oil and Gas, which opened in 1988.

Treasures of the Earth was the first major museum gallery in the world to integrate computers presenting images and text adjacent to artefacts as part of the information process within the exhibition. The central feature film, Liquid Assets, in the Oil and Gas exhibition was shot and viewed vertically from a circular gallery and won a major award from the IVCA in 1989.

""The Power Within"" exhibition on seismology includes a reconstruction of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake.

Following the relocation of the British Geological Survey's academic activities to Keyworth, the museum was transferred from the custody of the Natural Environment Research Council to the newly independent Natural History Museum. Although an administrative merger with the Natural History Museum had been effected by 1988 (from which time the former Geological Museum was promoted as The Earth Galleries), it was not until 1998 that the previously difficult to find corridor between the two museum buildings was replaced by a new link gallery. The former Geological Museum galleries are now known as the Red Zone in the Natural History Museum's plans and internal directional signage.

type=real photographic (rp)

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=london

number of items=single

period=inter-war (1918 - 1939)

postage condition=unposted