An internationally significant collection of shells containing specimens from Captain Cook's last voyage has been rediscovered 40 years after it was thought to have been thrown into a skip.
More than 200 shells have been returned to English Heritage, with some to be put on display in Northumberland this week.
This is a remarkable story that also focuses on colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and the impact humans have had on the natural world. At its heart, it tells the little-known story of the woman who collected them, Bridget Atkinson.
Frances Mackintosh, curator of North East collections at English Heritage, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be able to tell the story of this amazing woman.” “She's not a duchess, she's not from London high society, she's never been in the history books, but she's phenomenal.”
Although Atkinson came from a wealthy family, he rarely left his farm in Cumbria. She has been passionate about seashells all her life and has used her extensive connections to collect approximately 1,200 pieces from around the world.
While many people collected them for decoration, Atkinson was interested in their science and geography. The shells have been passed down through his family, including his grandson John Clayton, who grew up with his Roman fort at Chesters in the garden, and whose collection forms the basis of the museum at English Heritage. It has become.
In the 1930s, Atkinson's items were taken to what is now Newcastle University. However, in the 1980s, he was kicked out when his office was relocated.
They were thought to be lost forever, but it turns out that a passing lecturer, marine zoologist John Buchanan, retrieved them from the skip. His family donated them to English Heritage after cleaning up the house after his mother's death.
McIntosh recalled an email from the Buchanan family. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I just thought, ‘This is amazing,’ and then I thought… ‘What should I do?’ … I’m a Roman archaeologist!”
Shell experts are helping to identify and catalog the collection, including specimens sent to Mr Atkinson by George Dixon, the armorer on Mr Cook's third voyage around the world. was also included, and died at the time.
Mr Mackintosh said the temporary exhibition could not avoid the more problematic aspects of the story, such as the reality of Mr Cook's voyage.
There were also letters from Atkinson to his sons, some of whom had inherited sugar plantations in Jamaica, and others who worked for the East India Company. In his correspondence, Mr. Atkinson asked his children to search for specific shells for their collection. Some of them contained living things, and Atkinson instructed them to “boil them until they turn red.''
Tom White, chief curator of non-insect invertebrates at the Natural History Museum, is supporting the project. He said the collection contained a number of rare species and described Ms Atkinson as “one of the earliest women to amass scientifically significant shell collections from around the world”.
Mr White said: “These specimens would have been highly sought after in 18th century England during the golden age of shell collecting, when a single specimen would have sold for thousands of pounds.”
Mr McIntosh said the shells “not only survived, but that they were safely stored is nothing short of a miracle”.
Atkinson was fascinating in many ways. She also wrote down hundreds of treatments and recipes for illnesses such as parasites, insanity, and “mad dog” bites. A treatment that unfortunately does not apply to this disease is to mix rhubarb, opium tincture, and gin into her pint of milk. Opium tincture is a mixture of opium and alcohol.
