Number 4 - Geological Curators Group

Geological Curator, Voi.4, No.4, 1985, pp.215-216THE END OF A GEOLOGICAL ERA AT BRISTOLBY SUSAN SWANSBOROUGHForty-four years of combined geologicalexpertise will soon be lost at the City ofBristol Museum and Art Gallery as the Curatorof Geology, Dr Michael L.K. Curtis and theAssistant Curator, Dr Michael D. Crane, areboth to leave the museum world for pasturesnew. In the small world of museum geologistsin Britain, the almost simultaneous loss ofboth senior staff in a major museum can onlybe compared to the extinction of thedinosaurs!DR MICHAEL L.K. CURTIS PGSMicky Curtis came to the City of BristolMuseum as Curator of Geology in December 1951after completing his BSc and PhD at BristolUniversity. He was faced with the uphilltask of rebuilding the collections, depletedby the loss of an estimated 17,000 specimensthrough enemy bombing on the night of 24/25November 1940. Thousands of specimens werecollected from the local area, particularlyfrom temporary exposures such as motorwaycuttings and pipe trenches. He tackled thework single-handed for the first fifteenyears, but was assisted in later years,mainly hy Tom Fry, a renowned local collectorand part-time geologist at the museum.Micky is a curator in the true sense of theword; through his work, the collections atBristol are once again amongst the finest inBritain, with enviable storage and standardsof curation and documentation. Much of themuseum's international reputation rests onthe excellence of its geology collections.During thirty-four years of service togeology at Bristol Museum, Micky has seen andorohestrated great changes. It is a greatpersonal compliment that he persevered at therather unglamorous work of rebuilding thecollections and making proper provision fortheir housing, especially when he would havepreferred, like many curators, to placeemphasis on the more interpretive aspects ofmuseum work. It was always his belief thatwithout this provision the collections couldnot be used to their best advantage. Throughthese efforts his successor will find a veryfirm base on which to build.Micky is foremost a stratigraphicalpalaeontologist with particular interest inthe Lower Palaeozoic. The collectionsreflect both his interest and the richness ofthe Bristol district; the palaeontology ofthe Palaeozoic and Jurassic is particularlywell represented.From the outset Micky recognised theimportance of maintaining a good library and,through careful management of sometimes scantresources, he has maintained runs of journalsand high standards of book-binding and repair.In 1976 he oversaw the complete transform-Fig.1.Ur Michael L.K. Curtis FGS.ation of the Geology displays; hopefully thenew Mineral Gallery will have been completedin time for his leaving early in the new year.Two fossils have been named after him,thebrachiopod Eocoelia curtisi Zeigler, 1966(see Zeigler, A.M. 1966. Palaeontology, 9,537-538) and the trilobite Crassiproetus?curtisi Owens, 1973 (see Owens, R.M. 1973.British Ordovician and Silurian Proetidae,p.38. Palaeontogr. Soc. Monogr. 98pp, 15pls) .Early retirement will mean that Micky nolonger has to travel into Bristol each day bybus the many miles from his home in Berkeleyin Gloucestershire. He will be able to enjoyhis new-found freedom in his large gardenafter a distinguished career. We wish himwell for the years to come.BIBLIOGRAPHYCurtis, M.L.K. 1955. A review of pastresearch on the Lower Palaeozoic rocksof the Tortworth and Eastern MendipInliers. Proc. Bristol Nat. Soc. 291,71-78.Curtis, ?,f.J,.K., Donovan, U.T., Kellaway, G.A.and Welch, F.B.A. 1955. Geology, pp.3-33.McInnes, C.M. and Whittard, W.F. (eds.).Bristol and its adjoining counties.British Association for the Advancementof Science, Bristol, xiii + 335pp, 37pls.Curtis, M.L.K. 1956. Type and figured