Mr Booth and his Museum

A photograph of Mr Booth with shotgun, hat and boots, BCIL000002

Edward Thomas Booth amassed a large collection of British birds in the 19th century. He built a museum in 1874 to house his collection, displaying each of the birds in a series of dioramas.

He bequeathed the collection and museum to the local authority in 1890.

A Biography of Edward Thomas Booth 

Booth was born in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, on 2 June 1840. He was the only child of Edward Booth, a gentleman of independent means and his mother Marianne who was one of the well-known Beaumont family of Northumberland. By 1850 the family had moved to Hastings, Sussex, where the young Booth was taught taxidermy by Kent, the bird stuffer and barber from St Leonards. Presumably his lifelong enthusiasm for wildlife and hunting started at this stage of his life. In 1854 the family moved to Vernon Place, Brighton, where he attended a private school. He went on to Harrow and finally to Trinity College Cambridge from where he was sent down (probably for working harder at shooting on the Fensthan on his actual studies).

Edward Thomas Booth, BCIL000003

Booth’s early hunting started in the marshes near Rye, increasing his range in later life to the Norfolk Broads and the Scottish Highlands.

With the first Mrs Booth he moved to Dyke Road, Brighton, where he had built their home called Bleak House and in 1874 he built his museum in the grounds. At this stage the Booth Museum of British Birds was not open to the public, which occurred gradually with charitable fundraising events. By then he had formulated his ambition to exhibit one example of every species and recognisable stage of British bird, all of which he had collected, and set about the task of building up his collection.

Booth published his Rough Notes, three volumes of coffee table sized books, which amply demonstrate his detailed knowledge and powers of observation. He employed Ernest Neale, a little known artist, who based all of his illustrations on specimens in the Booth Museum.

Booth’s diaries, most of which still exist and form the basis of the text of his book, are largely rather dry accounts of shooting expeditions and include frighteningly large lists and tallies of creatures shot. He certainly was an excellent marksman. Here and there however it is possible to glimpse behind the rifle sights into the character of this very private man. A man whose dog’s names are recorded but not his wife’s, who shoots at another gunner who had the temerity to come too close when shooting on the Norfolk Broads, who enjoyed whiskey, Cross & Blackwell’s tinned soup and the company of ghillies (wardens hired to chase away poachers). Rumours about Booth include keeping a locomotive under steam for an entire week to enable him to leap into a hot train and travel to Scotland on receiving word from the ghillies who were searching for examples of the few remaining White-tailed Eagles. Also that he raised fledgling gannets in pens behind his house to enable him to kill them when they reached the level of plumage required for his display. Even that he became increasingly eccentric, even alcoholic, and fired his shotguns at the postmen on Dyke Road.

Bleak House, BCIL000004

At some stage we do know that Mrs Booth became ill and died. Her nurse, Bessie, became his second wife. He himself died on 2 February 1890 and was buried in Hastings cemetery. Shortly after his death the young widow donated his gun collection to the museum. Mrs Booth also commissioned a fine Portland stone pulpit inscribed to his memory to be erected at St Andrews Church, Portslade. The inscribed stone was given to the Booth Museum when the church was decommissioned. Booth’s original hope was to bequeath his museum to the London Museum of Natural History; they persuaded him otherwise. Brighton Corporation, as it was then called, became the beneficiary and there it has remained ever since.

Booth’s Technique 

Edward Booth employed George Saville, from Belgium via Cambridge, as his taxidermist, who was rumoured to been paid £25 per month, a huge sum in those days.

BCil000001

Booth’s technique was to shoot the specimens and probably while still in the field he would make a large, rather primitive painting of the area in which the bird had been obtained. The skinned bird along with the painting would be presented to Saville. A painting of the bird would be made and cut out, then placed on the landscape painting, moved around until the desired composition was achieved, and glued into place. Saville would mount the birds and replicate Booth’s painting in the form of a display case. These cases range from two feet by three feet to six feet by six feet.

Prior to Booth’s collection, mounted birds were usually placed on simple wooden perches. Booth’s dioramas, as well as his museum, are his major legacy to the world. The idea of exhibiting the bird as well as its environment has been widely copied all over of the world, and perfected in large museums in the USA such as The American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institute.

The Booth Museum of Natural History 

Between the death of Edward Booth and the 1930s the museum was well cared for by a succession of wealthy and knowledgeable gentlemen whose own collections were added to the museum, notably Alderman Griffith, Dr Herbert Langston, J Gordon Dalgliesh and Major Blackiston. During this stage many more collections of other groups of animals were added to the collections prominent amongst which were the Hall, Tonge and De Rhe Philip collections of lepidoptera, the Holmes and Willett collections of fossils and the M J Nicholl collection of bird skins. Many more cases of mounted birds were added to the Booth display; these were prepared by Brighton taxidermists Brazenor Bros, Swaysland & Sons and Pratt & Sons.

During World War II the museum was closed and used for general museum storage. Happily the building survived the war intact, unhappily all the collections did not. The newly acquired insect collections suffered at the hands of other insects, specifically the larval form of the Carpet Beetle. Fortunately a warder, Ray Hiles, hitherto employed by the 8th Army took it on himself to fumigate the collections and was able to save much. In the 1970s the council started to employ professionals to care for the museum and the collections. In 1975 all the zoological and geological collections housed elsewhere in Brighton were moved to Dyke Road. They included the F W Lucas collection of vertebrate skeletons, which were displayed in a new gallery in the Booth Museum. The next development was an ecology gallery and an insect gallery, which is also used as a classroom. These were followed by the fossil and mineral gallery displaying some of the earliest known dinosaur bones.

Booth Museum of Natural History

In 1998 the Booth Museum was one of the first regional museums in the country to be designated as having collections of national importance.

The Conservation of Natural History Materials

With tongue fixed firmly in cheek it has been a long standing joke in the Booth Museum that from a conservator’s perspective the ideal Natural History Museum would be situated in deep space, shielded in some way from the ravages of meteorites and other space debris.

Here, without an atmosphere, the collections would in theory be truly protected, A from light, B from dust, C from insect attack, D fluctuations in humidity & temperature, E from wear & tear.

The Museum at the end of the universe, Natural History section. ?

Situated in deep space there would be no light which as we all know causes fading by means of ultra-violet radiation. At first shielding took the form of greenhouse paint being applied to the skylights at the Booth. Later it was realised that artificial light was also a source of harmful radiation and UV filters were applied to all lights and to the case fronts. Sadly any fading is irreversible, but at least we are able to prevent further fading.

Museum dust is worse than normal dust which according to Wikipedia is as follows:-

 Dust consists of particles in the atmosphere arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind, volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Dust in homes, offices, and other human environments contains small amounts of plant pollen, human and animal hairs, textile fibers paper fibers, minerals from outdoor soil, and many other materials which may be found in the local environment.

Dirty, dusty museum objects are less attractive aesthetically and educationally. In sufficient quantities the dust can also provide a suitable nurturing environment for the development of insect pests.  The removal of this dust is inevitably harmful to the specimens. In deep space’s vacuum there would be no atmosphere and movement of atmosphere to allow the dust to circulate and settle of objects. Museum pests would of course be unable to survive in the vacuum of deep space.

Having been deprived by the Health & Safety Executive of the beneficial effects of Arsenic, Dichlorvos, Formaldehyde & Naphthalene, we attempt to reproduce the space effect, by placing vulnerable museum objects in a vacuum preferably in a freezer, or in an anaerobic container. In the Booth the most harmful pests are invertebrates misc. carnivorous beetles, moth, mites. Recently the collection received the unwanted harmful attention of a family of mice.

All museum objects are at risk from fluctuations in humidity and temperature; the two are usually linked and can be easily monitored by readings in a thermo hygrograph which plots heat against temperature.

In storage and display the movement on a molecular level caused by expansion & contraction and the change in humidity have to be minimised. In the geology and palaeontology collections increased humidity can result in harmful chemical reactions. The Booth’s fabric consisting as it does of a large amount of absorbent wood achieves a degree of natural humidity control, not however enough.

The final category wear and tear is caused exclusively by people who of course could not survive in space, neither staff nor visitors. Any movement whether for storage, cleaning or for educational purposes has an effect on specimens and must rank as the foremost source of wear and tear and damage to museum specimens of every kind.

People in the museums however are unavoidable and so, not having the deep space option we at the Booth have to make do as best as we can. It is as well to remember that even the most benign conservation treatment will impart a degree of damage. Some objects especially those made of leather, feathers and vegetable matter are particularly vulnerable to this form of harm.

Away from space but nearly as unlikely would be a form of quarantine for any specimens that leave and are returned to the museum. Ideally items that are used for loans or outreach work should be housed completely separately, to be able to avoid the introduction of insect pests to the main collections. As a general rule these items should be regarded as separate collections and as being expendable.

In the Booth the most commonly asked health and safety issue raised is the Arsenic question. Is it harmful to museum staff? Arsenic is the main reason that Booth’s collections are still with us however it has a fearsome reputation, to an extent based on Victorian hyperbole & melodrama. It has been superseded by Borax powder and to a degree by pyrethrum based insecticides making all modern specimens completely safe, but not very safe from insect attack!  Prolonged exposure to arsenic may be harmful but occasional exposure to the small quantities encountered from museum specimens will not.

Any conservation work should only be carried out by qualified staff. Any observations suggesting work required should be passed on to them, e.g. damage or evidence of insect attack. Well meaning repair work is to be discouraged firmly but politely.

Jeremy Adams, retired Assistant Keeper at the Booth Museum

At Work With…

…Kevin Bentman, Visitor Services Officer

I have been working for the council for over 10 years now at three local buildings, Preston Manor, the Booth Museum of Natural History and Hove Museum & Art Galleries.

The Visitor Services Officers are a dedicated and very hard working team; we have great local history knowledge of all three buildings.

There is such a diversity of local museums including Preston Manor in Preston drove. It’s a beautiful Victorian home once lived in by Sir Charles and Lady Ellen Thomas-Stanford, shared with their family and dogs. Here we have an upstairs downstairs feel to the family home all left as it once originally was.

Preston Manor

We hold role-play for children all dressed up in Victorian costumes in which they rein act tasks and chores from cleaning, making fire lighters and beating rugs to cooking preparation. All taught by our very own role-play team, acting as Maurice Elphick the Butler and Miss Rose the head housemaid, both equally as friendly and scary at times! The Children learn so much and get a real feel for what it was like back in the day, they have so much fun they don’t ever want to leave us.

We then also hold ghost tours and late night vigils with mediums, behind the scenes tours throughout the year and croquet on the lawns in the summer. All of this is surrounded by stunning gardens swept with scented flowers and colourful plants.

Next to us is our neighbouring church which is opened daily by volunteers. The Church dates back to the 13th century and was modified in 1870.

Preston Manor was lived in by many families over the years – The Elringtons, Shirleys and the last tenants being the Stanford family until 1932. The house was handed to the people of Brighton through the Brighton Corporation and reopened as a museum in 1933. Much later in the 1980s the basement with kitchen and boot hall was launched. This was due to it being fashionable to see how people worked below stairs.

I also work in the Booth Museum of Natural History along Dyke Road, filled to the rafters with birds, insects, bones and fossils.

Owned by Edward Thomas Booth in 1874 to house his rare collection, it was believed he wanted to collect one of every British bird which he very nearly succeeded. On display are plenty of rare and now extinct varieties.

The Booth Museum of Natural History

Glass cases surround this historical museum, including some newly modernised discovery and insect galleries, a hands on area alongside a room for people to work away at, we always welcome groups, students and school groups. Photography is allowed and artists can sketch away.

Curators are often on hand to answer questions and items can be left and later identified, we also hold children and family ticketed events through the year, the most popular is the reptiles were you can touch both spiders and sssssnakes!

And lastly the 3rd building I work in is Hove Museum and Art Gallery set along New Church Road. It is a grand building steeped in character, hosting an array of local arts and crafts, toys and film.

In the Wizards attic upstairs children and adults can gaze at the toys from the 1920s to the present day, a cinema screen projecting three films from local film makers including a lantern show and looking at Brighton from 1920s to 1980s, Brighton was a very different place back then!

Hove Museum & Art Gallery

An exhibition gallery downstairs hosts changes every so often always attracting visitors from all over. At present we have Robot Invasion, choc full of retro sci-fi robots and its collectable memorabilia. And for those of you that need a refreshment we have the Tea Room which I can say is Truly Scrumptious.

The hard working team of staff here are like one big family working to give visitors that Brighton & Hove Museums Experience.

Our daily work as a Visitors Service Officer is like that of a security role. We also man the gift shops, are at hand for any information, carry out day to day cleaning, promote tickets and events among many other things.

I love my job as it’s always different and you deal with a wide variety of peoples needs…oh and of course we have fun doing it. We hope you come and visit us soon!