Woodwardian Collection

Welcome to the Woodwardian Collection section of the Sedgwick Museum website. This section is open to all but is primarily aimed at those wanting to use the collection for research and study purposes. Here you will find information that will help you to plan your research enquiry or visit. 

Woodwardian Collection Overview 

The Woodwardian Collection is the personal collection of Dr. John Woodward (1665-1728), it is the founding collection of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences and is retained in its original secretaire style collector’s cabinets. The collection comprises about 9,400 rocks, fossils, minerals, and archaeological artefacts collected between about 1690 and 1725. The collection was made by Woodward in order to gather evidence to help him understand the structure of the Earth and explain the occurrence of the different types of rocks minerals and fossils. The collection is unusual for the period, being a collection of the ordinary, rather than the extraordinary as was usual for many of the ‘cabinets of curiosity’ popular at the time. Woodward was a member of the Royal Society and many of the specimens were donated by fellow members, such as Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Christopher Wren and from his wide circle of foreign correspondents. The geographical range of the collection includes most of the known world at the time. The Museum continues to use Woodward’s published 18th century catalogues, these are currently being transcribed but remain the main source of information about objects in the collection. Card indexes of donors and British collecting localities are also available. Because the collection has never been broken up and dispersed, specimens can still be traced back to their original owners and an approximate date for their discovery determined. For example the collection probably contains the earliest collected dinosaur material that can still be located within a collection. The collection is most relevant to those undertaking research within the field of the history and philosophy of science in the early modern period. 

Geographical Range of the Collection 

Woodward’s UK collection covers almost the whole of England and much of South and mid Wales. The largest regional collections are from around London, Sherborne in Dorset and areas of mineral exploitation such as the Lake District, Cornwall, the Derbyshire Peak District, the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire and the Mendip Hills Somerset. Welsh material is mostly from the South coast and areas of mineral exploitation such as Ceredigion and Powys. 

The largest foreign collections are from the mining areas of Germany and Eastern Europe. They include the earliest known collection of minerals from the Carpathians. Smaller amounts of material have been sourced from other parts of Europe, North Africa, Asia, Scandinavia and the Americas. 

Donors, collectors and associated people 

151 people are listed by Woodward in his catalogue as the source of specimens in the collection. Some of these such as Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Edmund Halley and Captain William Dampier are important historical figures we recognise today although they made modest contributions to the collection. The major contributors to the collection with respect to British material were William Nicholson (76 items ), John Morton (66), Mr Jackson (43) and Mr (Samuel?) Clarke (24).  With respect to international material the major contributors were Johan Jacob Scheuchzer (278), Agostino Scilla (210), Baron de Schonberg (183), Valkenier (128), Mich. Rheinoldus Rosinus (125), Louis Bourguet (121), Edward Bulkley (96), Dr A. Leopold of Lubeck (91), William Vernon (58) 

Figured specimens acquired by Woodward 

Although Woodward’s catalogues are not illustrated the collection does include figured specimens that appeared in earlier works by other authors. 

The key works are:

Lister, Martin (1685-1692), Historia Conchyliorum 

Morton, John (1712) The Natural History of Northamptonshire 

Scilla, Agostino (1670) La vana speculazione 

About 50 of Scilla’s specimens were illustrated in his book for which the Museum has the original pencil drawings in its archive. 

Arrangement of the Catalogues and Collection

Woodward classified all of his geological material as fossils, which he subdivided into ‘Native fossils’ - what we now call rocks and minerals - and ‘Extraneous fossils’ what we understand as fossils in the modern sense. The collection is further subdivided into British and international collections. The collection was reorganised at the University of Cambridge in the mid 18th century to bring the order of the collection closer to Woodward’s classificational scheme. 

Catalogues for the British material:

Woodward, J., 1729. An Attempt Towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England: In a Catalogue of the English Fossils in the Collection of J. Woodward, MD Containing a Description and Historical Account of Each; with Observations and Experiments, Made in Order to Discover, as Well the Origin and Nature of Them, as Their Medicinal, Mechanical, and Other Uses. F. Fayram... J. Senex... J. Osborn and T. Longman. 

Volume 1: A Catalogue of the English Fossils in the Collection of J. Woodward, MD 

Part 1: of the fossils that are real and natural: earth, stone, marble, talcs, coralloids, spars, crystals, gems, bitumens, salts, marcasites, minerals and metals. 

Part 2: exhibiting the fossils that are extraneous; the parts of vegetables, and of animals, digg’d up out of the bowels of the earth; in particular the shells of sea-fishes: as also the stoney, mineral, and metallick bodies form’d in them. Ranged and disposed in a classical method, according to their several kinds and alliances; with an historical account of each: as likewise various observations and reflections. 

Volume 2: A Catalogue of the additional English native Fossils in the Collection of J. Woodward, MD [also includes catalogues of additional English extraneous fossils] 

Catalogues for the International material:

Woodward, J., A Catalogue of the Foreign Fossils in the Collection of J. Woodward brought as well from several parts of Asisa, Africa, and America; as from Sweden, Germany, Hungary, and the parts of Europe. With a characteristick description, and historical account of each; as also various experiments, observations, and reflections, in order to the setting forth the natural history, and the medicinal, mechanical and other uses of them. 

Part 1: exhibiting the fossils that are real and natural, earths, stones, marbles, talcs, corralloids, spars, crystals, gems, bitumens, salts, marcasites, minerals, and metals. 

Part 2: exhibiting the fossils that are extraneous; the parts of vegetables, and of animals digged up out of the bowels of the earth: in particular the shells of sea-fishes; as also the stoney, mineral, and metallick bodies form’d in them…[includes catalogues of additional native and extraneous fossils] 

For further enquiries about this collection, please email museumcollections@esc.cam.ac.uk. 

Further Reading: 

Bick, D.E., 1977. The Old Metal Mines of Mid-Wales Part 4: West Montgomeryshire. Newent: Pound House.  

Levine, J.M., 1991. Dr. Woodward's shield: history, science, and satire in Augustan England. Cornell University Press.