Dry Storeroom No. 1

Starred review from May 26, 2008
Award-winning natural-history writer Fortey (Trilobite!
) provides a thoroughly delightful behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's greatest natural history museums. Having spent his entire career as a paleontologist at London's Natural History Museum, Fortey is well positioned to explore all aspects of the institution. With unbridled passion and childlike glee, he wanders about the museum discovering samples collected during the voyages of Captain Cook, specimens studied by Charles Darwin and meteorites that originated on Mars. He also introduces many of the largely unknown specialists responsible for the museum's renown. But Fortey's strength is his ability to explain the importance to society of their arcane research. Indeed, he argues, this research “has never been more important at a time when humans are increasingly degrading the environment: “The great museums may harbour the conscience for the natural world, not merely provide its catalog.” Fortey offers a beautiful paean to the collections and articulately makes the case that museums are much more than mere spectacles to entertain and educate the public. 16 pages of color illus., 86 illus. in text.

Starred review from June 15, 2008
Entering a museum, especially a natural history museum, the museum visitor's focus is on the exhibits he or she is interested in that day, perhaps birds or minerals or plants, or the latest blockbuster show. How often does the visitor think of the people who created these collections, whether they are working today, where this bird, rock, or dinosaur came from, if there are more pieces stored away, and exactly what is going on behind those doors closed to the public? Fortey, a former senior paleontologist at London's Natural History Museum and author of "Life, Trilobite", and "Earth", spent decades working at this famous place and has the greatest respect and fondness for his institution, its history, its collections, and, most of all, his present and past colleagues. Barely dipping into the wealth of personalities and the collections, Fortey instead takes readers behind closed doors to reveal how a museum runs, how collections are built, and how scientists work. He also traces the London museum's history and the present status of scientific discovery and contributions there. He does this with wit and humor, writing in a wonderfully clear style. Readers will never enter a museum again without wanting someone like Fortey to take them behind the scenes. Highly recommended for all collections and required for natural history and history of science collections.Michael D. Cramer, Schwarz BioSciences, RTP, Raleigh, NC

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2008
Fortey, senior paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London and author (Life, 1999; Trilobite! 2000), here turns his eye to the inner workings of a natural history museum. Though a paleontologist and an expert on trilobites, Fortey looks at all of the major departments of the museum, examining how they work, providing brief backgrounds on the sciences themselves, and telling stories of many of the museums scientists both past and present. Explaining how science works through his stories from the museum, Fortey tells of truffles and how they illustrate the science of taxonomy; the Piltdown Man fraud and how more modern techniques exposed the hoax; how one of the ichthyologists found a lost Mozart manuscript while searching for a sixteenth-century books illustration of a herring; and how the First Law of Museumsnever throw anything awayturned up a cast of the Koh-i-noordiamond made before it was recut. Well illustrated with photos, this chatty book meanders from tale to tale in the endlessly fascinating manner of a good storyteller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)