Polymath

My favorite St Andrews historical personage is Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. He was a professor of natural history, a mathematician, a zoologist, a museum developer, classicist, and parrot lover.

He had a reputation, even before taking up the chair at St Andrews, as being eccentric. He once said about his magnum opus On Growth and Form "it is 'all preface' from beginning to end." The book advocated natural laws that govern behavior rather than strictly focusing on evolution. Which at the time in 1917 was kinda radical. He also used math to point out differences and similarities between species.

This book inspired both Alan Turing and Jackson Pollock. Talk about differences in the species! He created both the natural history museums at the University of Dundee and the University of St Andrews(I enjoyed studying in the Bell-Pettigrew, which I talked about in an earlier post). One of his habits after moving to St Andrews would be to walk about town with his parrot on his shoulder.

My point here is that Professor Thompson was a polymath. Equally comfortable with language, science, math, and art. And parrots.He refused to be confined to disciplines. He would have made a good librarian.

I've decided to be more like D'Arcy W. Thompson. I'm not going to get a parrot and it's probably too late to be a renowned mathematician(even if I wanted). But he knew how to own his differences. He made them work for him. That's what I'm going to do. Learn more, walk about with a figurative parrot on my shoulder, use my knowledge and not apologize for it.

After all, I am a librarian. And as another (probably) polymath and librarian, Allen Smith, once said, "In order to be really good as a librarian, everything counts towards your work, every play you go see, every concert you hear, every trip you take, everything you read, everything you know. I don’t know of another occupation like that. The more you know, the better you’re going to be.”

 

They are staring at me. And it's not that creepy

St. Andrews has several museums in the town.  It's a bit odd for a town this small to have 6 different museums and an exhibition space, but that's how it goes.

One of the museums attached to the University is the Bell-Pettigrew Museum, which I have heard referred to as the Taxidermy Museum.
It's a natural history museum in a classic Victorian style.  Lots of birds, insects, and shells.  There's a bunch of fossils, including a dinosaur leg bone.  They even have some old science equipment. 

But they have a lot of taxidermied animals.  Animal heads.

 A gator mounted sideways up on the wall(not sure why).

 A buck toothed weasel.

And then there is this. It has to be the most terrified predator I have ever seen.
I'm sure they meant it to be snarling or something.  But really, this just says Oh my God I saw a scary bird and it's going to eat me!

See if you don't agree. It's a British wild cat, for those interested.  They are pretty much extinct in England, and there aren't that many in Scotland left.  It's supposed to be a pretty fierce animal.  Yes, it looks like a domestic cat. 

And this is a good one.  Because what's a museum without a vampire deer?  It's actually a musk deer, but honestly?  That screams Vampire.

One can imagine that not many people would study in here with all the dead eyes looking at them.  But no.  People do.  It's a good place to hang out.  They provide tables to spread out your stuff, plugs for the computer, and it's generally a quiet spot out of the hustle and bustle.  Not to mention you don't have to jockey for a space in the library.

Not a lot of distractions, except for the dead stuff.  And hey I can appreciate the humor, unintended as it may be, of the displays.
So unless it really creeps you out, it's a cool place.  Despite the stuff in jars.

Field trips,

First of all, apologies.  I haven't been very diligent about blogging.  Again there's no real excuse.  I just forget or get sucked into e-mail.
I'll try to be better.
So, we've gone a few class field trips.  One was to the National Gallery Scotland storage facility and then to their conservation labs.  I have to say that was fun.  I like storage for museums.  After all I was the one who organized the Nooks and Crannies tour of the Furniture Storage Center at Yale.  Ah, original Stickley and art deco.
The highlight for me in the conservation tour was seeing the curator studio for the paintings.  The curator was cleaning a Cezanne.  In fact she was cleaning this Cezanne.  http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/C/2913/artist_name/Paul%20C%C3%A9zanne/record_id/2488

It's going on loan to the Prado, so it needs to be taken care of before shipping.
It was just sitting there on the easel.  I could have touched it!  I had never been that close to a masterpiece.  I breathed on it.  It was one of those spine tingling moments.

And I recognized it right off.  Oh I screwed up my identification of the artist at first.  I do that.  I get Cezanne and Gauguin confused for some reason.  But it took me back to art history 101.  As soon as I saw the mountain, I knew.  Apparently some lessons from Dr. Dixon sunk in.  It was seriously cool.

But the best part was the Monet.  It wasn't even on an easel!  It was on a table.  Ah Claude.  Just sitting there! It was scheduled for some cleaning.  I just love Monet.  I couldn't believe I was so close to one of his masterpieces in a non-gallery setting.
It's really hard to describe how thrilling it was.  Just amazing.  It was like being in a sacred presence. I wish I had a photo of the lab.

We also went to the Black Watch Castle and Museum.  As well as the Ferguson Gallery and the Perth Museum and Art Gallery.
I liked the Black Watch.  I have a fondness for the regiment.  It's not just the tartan.  Although I like that too.  They used it liberally throughout the museum...

My great aunt once told me that an uncle of hers served.  I just wish I remembered his name.  I saw a bunch of Milnes in the honor roll of the regiment and a few family names like George, Alexander and David.  Plus the Black Watch was pretty local in this part of Scotland.  The men from Fife, Angus and Perth signed up.  But there were a few from Forfar, where one side of the family came from.  The odds were good one of them was in the book.  This was the book from after WWI. 

They had newer stuff too.  Found this in the post war galleries.  Hmm, where have I heard about these cards?

After we left the Black Watch we went to Perth.  The museum there has a combination of stuff.  Natural history, social history, decorative arts, and paintings.
In an interesting coincidence I found someone I knew.  Sort of.

It's my dad!  Well, his name anyway. And as soon as I saw it I heard his voice.  I knew exactly what he'd say if he was there.  "Hey that's me!  There I am!"  Made me smile.  But it's hard too. I know he'd love to visit and be so proud that I was at this university so near where his parents came from.  I miss him. 
But we saw the stores in Perth too.  Lots of fun.  I had another encounter with home, as the museum has a dinosaur footprint from CT.  Actually it has one of the Connecticut state fossil footprints.  I recognized the footprint and the dino name before I saw the Connecticut tag on the label.
This was one of my favorite moments.  The museum is closing for a few months so some items are being sent on temporary exhibit around Perth.

I'm assuming they will pack them first.  There were other oddities.  Such as these.  I can't help but feel that was a terribly uncomfortable bike to ride.  And that dog/fox/whatever has a very sappy look on its face.  It's hard to tell with the horn, but there was no good angle for a photo.  Amazing what you find in storage.

 

New Adventures

I have embarked on a new adventure.  I went back to school.  While that doesn't sound very
adventurous on the face of it, that is only because I haven't told you where I am attending school.  I applied to and was accepted at the University of St. Andrews.  In Scotland.

In fact, I am sitting in their library writing this now.  Mostly because the internet hasn't been connected at my place.  All hail the power of free wifi! I can't WAIT till it gets connected at home. 

So the move was exciting, but very stressful.  I couldn't pack some stuff that I wanted, and had to wait until it was shipped.  There were other things I forgot to pack and needed.  Like my camera cord and a few more DVD's.  I've only really just got used to the place and not missing home all the time.  I do still miss my bed though. 

So a brief intro to what I'm studying and the views I see as I walk to class.  According to the university I'm an M.Litt student (fancy way of saying I'll have a Master of Arts in the fall.) in Museum and Gallery Studies.  It seemed like a good idea with my library and archives training.  It's really interesting, so far.  I've got an essay to write abut research and scholarship as a function of museums.  So I've been doing a lot of reading and note taking.  I like the topic and with my Yale experience it's kind of natural.  As you can see I was hard at work studying...

Today I did some exhibit prep and went to the museum collections unit to look at objects.  Historical science instruments.  I'm on the physics of sound group.  I'll wait while you laugh...I understand.  I did too.  'Cause I went into library science for the science of it. There are some really cool objects though.  My favorite is the wooden xylophone. I'm hoping we get to use that. 

I live about a 20 minute walk from the center of town.  It's not a bad hike, although I have a feeling in the winter it will be very cold.  I'm considering getting a bike.  I get to walk right past the ruins on my way to town, which is nice.  The old castle and cathedral suffered during the Reformation.  I blame the Calvinists. 
But it's hard to fault the views.  It's one of the best commutes I've ever had.
I like walking past the harbor, even if it adds a few minutes to the trip.  I would miss the ocean. 

 See what the Calvinists did?  Honestly...

 These are the Castle Sands(fancy way of saying Beach) right near the Museum of St Andrews(MUSA) where I have class every week. 

 And this is from the top of the hill looking out to the pier and the North Sea.

Now that I have my camera cord I can share photos!