Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (8 February 1807 – 27 January 1894) was an English
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
and
natural history artist renowned for his work on the life-size models of
dinosaurs in the Crystal Palace Park in south London. The models, accurately made using the latest scientific knowledge, created a sensation at the time. Hawkins was also a noted lecturer on
zoological
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...
topics.
Education and early career
Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins was born in Bloomsbury, London on 8 February 1807, the son of Thomas Hawkins, an artist, and Louisa Anne Waterhouse, the daughter of a Jamaica plantation family of apparent Catholic sympathies. He studied at St. Aloysius College, and learned sculpture from
William Behnes
William Behnes (1795 – 3 January 1864) was a British sculptor of the early 19th century.
Life
Born in London, Behnes was the son of a Hanoverian piano-maker and his English wife. His brother was Henry Behnes, also a sculptor, albeit an i ...
. At the age of 20, he began to study natural history and later geology. He contributed illustrations to ''The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle''.
During the 1840s, he produced studies of living animals in
Knowsley Park, near
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
for
Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby
Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (21 April 1775 – 30 June 1851), KG, of Knowsley Hall in Lancashire (styled Lord Stanley from 1776 to 1832, known as Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe from 1832-4), was a politician, peer, landowner, bui ...
. The park was one of the largest private menageries in Victorian England and Hawkins' work was later published with
John Edward Gray
John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...
's text as ''"Gleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley"'' . Over the same period Hawkins exhibited four sculptures at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
between 1847 and 1849, and was elected a member of the
Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...
in 1846 and a fellow of the
Linnean Society
The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...
in 1847. Fellowship of the
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows.
Fe ...
followed in 1854.
Great Exhibition
Meanwhile, possibly due to Derby's connections, Hawkins was appointed assistant superintendent of the
Great Exhibition of 1851
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...
in London. The following year, he was appointed by the Crystal Palace company to create 33
life-size concrete models of extinct dinosaurs to be placed in the south London park to which the great glass exhibition hall was to be relocated. In this work, which took some three years, he collaborated with Sir
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.
Owe ...
and other leading scientific figures of the time: Owen estimated the size and overall shape of the animals, leaving Hawkins to sculpt the models according to Owen's directions.
A dinner was held inside the mould used to make the ''
Iguanodon
''Iguanodon'' ( ; meaning 'iguana-tooth'), named in 1825, is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur. While many species have been classified in the genus ''Iguanodon'', dating from the late Jurassic Period to the early Cretaceous Period of Asia, Eu ...
''. The dinner party, hosted by Owen on 31 December 1853, garnered attention in the press. Most of the sculptures are still on display in
Crystal Palace Park
Crystal Palace Park is a Victorian pleasure ground located in the South London suburb of Crystal Palace which surrounds the site of the former Crystal Palace Exhibition building. The Palace had been relocated from Hyde Park, London after the 18 ...
.
United States
![Hadrosaurus foulkii](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Hadrosaurus_Foulkii.JPG)
In 1868, he traveled to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
to deliver a series of lectures. Working with the scientist
Joseph Leidy
Joseph Mellick Leidy (September 9, 1823 – April 30, 1891) was an American paleontologist, parasitologist and anatomist.
Leidy was professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, later was a professor of natural history at Swarthmore ...
, Hawkins designed and cast an almost complete
skeleton
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
of
Hadrosaurus
''Hadrosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of hadrosaurid ornithopod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now the Woodbury Formation about 80 million to 78 million years ago. The holotype specimen was found in f ...
foulkii which was then displayed at the
Academy of Natural Sciences
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natura ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. Supported on an iron framework in a lifelike pose, this was the world's first mounted dinosaur skeleton.
Hawkins was later commissioned to produce models for
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
's
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
museum similar to these he had created in Sydenham. He established a studio on the original site of the
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, and planned to create a
Paleozoic Museum
Following the success of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' life-sized concrete dinosaur models created for England's Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851, in 1868 the Commissioners of Manhattan's newly created Central Park recruited the scu ...
. During his ten years in America (1868-1878), Hawkins designed exhibit halls for the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, and began to create an enormous paleontological museum for New York City. The museum was to have been in Central Park. His work was all destroyed in 1871 by "Boss" Tweed, a corrupt politician, who wasn't adequately compensated for his patronage.
Following the tragic loss of his studio through destruction of all of his dinosaur models at the hands of Tweed's vandals, he returned to England in 1874, but almost immediately returned, doing dinosaur reconstructions at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
(then called the College of New Jersey) in Princeton, New Jersey (where he also created paintings of dinosaurs). These paintings remain in the collection of the
Princeton University Art Museum
The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works o ...
. Hawkins also worked at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. He again returned to Britain in 1878.
Family and death
Hawkins had married in 1826 to Mary Selina Green, and by her had several children. In 1835, he met and fell in love with artist Frances 'Louisa' Keenan, and the next year he left his family and bigamously married her. He kept in touch with Mary and her children, but lived with Louisa, having two additional daughters. On his 1874 return to England, he seems to have become estranged from Louisa. He was living with his son by Mary, amidst what he described a "climax of domestic troubles" thought to indicate that Louisa had finally learned that their 38-year marriage had been invalid, and this may have led to his precipitous return to America in 1875. After his second return, he moved to West Brompton to be near his first wife, Mary, who was ill. Mary died in 1880.
In 1883, Hawkins again married Louisa, although since they were not cohabitants at the time this was probably done for legalistic reasons (to legitimize their children), and they apparently never reconciled before her death the next year. Hawkins suffered a debilitating stroke in 1889, leading to erroneous reports of his death, and died on 27 January 1894. There is a
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
at 22 Belvedere Road ("Fossil Villa") in
Upper Norwood
Upper Norwood is an area of south London, England, within the London Boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth and Southwark. It is north of Croydon and the eastern part of it is better known as the Crystal Palace area.
Upper Norwood is situated ...
, commemorating where he lived between 1856 and 1872.
Legacy
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer (born April 29, 1960) is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 24 novels published and his short fiction has appeared in ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'', ''Amazing Stories'', '' On Spec'', ''Nature'', and numerou ...
's 1994 novel ''End of an Era'' mentions the famous New Year's Eve 1853 dinner party inside the ''Iguanodon'', citing both Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen by name.
Works list
* Comparative anatomy as applied to the purposes of the artist by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and George Wallis. Published by Winsor & Newton, Ltd.
883
* Fauna boreali-americana, or, The zoology of the northern parts of British America : containing descriptions of the objects of natural history collected on the late northern land expeditions under command of Captain Sir John Franklin, R.N. by: Sir John Richardson, Charles M Curtis, Sir John Franklin, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, William Kirby, Thomas Landseer, James de Carle Sowerby, William Swainson, Charles Edward Wagstaff. Published by John Murray (1829-1837
* Gleanings from the menagerie and aviary at Knowsley Hall by John Edward Gray, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, Edward Lear. Published by Knowsley
rinted for private distribution(1846–50
* Group of European bison or aurochs sculpture in Bronze Exhibited at Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (London), 1851. Modelled and chased for presentation to H.I.M. the Emperor of Russia, from the Zoological Society of London
Gallery
Image:Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins00.jpg, Porcine Deer (Axis porcinus
The Indian hog deer (''Axis porcinus'') is a small deer native to the Indo-Gangetic Plain in Pakistan, northern India, Nepal, Bangladesh to mainland Southeast Asia. It also occurs in western Thailand, and is possibly extirpated from China (in sou ...
) from Knowsley Park
Image:Sydenham studio.jpg, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' studio in Sydenham, where he made the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs
The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are a series of sculptures of dinosaurs and other extinct animals, incorrect by modern standards, in the London borough of Bromley's Crystal Palace Park. Commissioned in 1852 to accompany the Crystal Palace after i ...
.
Image:Central Park studio.jpg, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' studio at the Central Park Arsenal, with models of extinct animals
Princeton University Art Museum
The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works o ...
">
File:Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins Deer and palaeolithic hunter.jpg, ''Irish Elk and Palaeolithic Hunter'', by 1894
File:Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins Moas of Prehistoric New Zealand.jpg, ''Moas of Prehistoric New Zealand'', by 1894
File:Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins Pleistocene Fauna of Asia.jpg, ''Pleistocene Fauna of Asia'', commissioned 1876
* Bramwell, Valerie and Peck, Robert M. ''All in the Bones: A Biography of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins''. Academy of Natural Sciences, 2008
* Kerley, Barbara. ''
'' Illustrated by Brian Selznick. Scholastic Press, 2001.
* Goldman, David. "Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and his New York City Paleozoic Museum." ''Prehistoric Times Magazine'' Dec/Jan 2003.
* Yann, Carla. "Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins" in ''Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists'', University of Chicago Press, 2004.
From Cabinet Magazine Online Issue 28, Winter 2007/08.