Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life
of the Natural History Museum by
Richard Fortey
Reflections On The Past, Present And Future State Of Nature In The Human World
Richard Fortey—one of the world’s most gifted natural scientists and
acclaimed author of Life, Trilobite and Earth—describes this splendid new
book as a museum of the mind. But it is, as well, a perfect behind-the-
scenes guide to a legendary place. Within its pages, London’s Natural
History Museum, a home of treasures—plants from the voyage of Captain
Cook, barnacles to which Charles Darwin devoted years of study, hidden
accursed jewels—pulses with life and miraculous surprises. In an elegant
and illuminating narrative, Fortey acquaints the reader with the
extraordinary people, meticulous research and driving passions that
helped to create the timeless experiences of wonder that fill the museum.
And with the museum’s hallways and collection rooms providing a dazzling
framework, Fortey offers an often eye-opening social history of the

scientific accomplishments of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first
centuries.
Fortey’s scholarship dances with wit. Here is a book that is utterly
entertaining from its first page to its last.
Personal Review: Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the
Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
Richard Fortey is also the author of Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution. This
has some bearing on this wonderful book because of passages like this:
***
It might seem an odd ambition to try to get everyone to pronounce a word
correctly. But mine has always been to get the world to say "trilobite"
without fudging, and with a certain measure of understanding. My own
mother was wont to say "troglodyte," which at least has a certain
prehistoric dimension, even if it refers to human cave dwellers rather than
extinct arthropods several hundred million years older than humans.
"Did you have a nice week with the troglodytes, dear?" was one of her
regular enquiries.
***
As this (hopefully) illustrates, Fortey is a capable and humorous guide, one
who can impart information without the reader minding it a bit. And this
book isn't just about hidden exhibits and research. Some of its most
fascinating specimens are the humans who work behind the scenes.
One of Fortey's particular strengths is what I call the "Doug Henning
Superpower." Older readers may remember Doug Henning as a tie-dyed
magician with big hair. Although he should have been aggravating,
Henning was able to look as amazed as his audiences at the wonders he
wrought onstage. Fortey has this ability as well; he is a guide who takes us
behind the scenes of the Natural History Museum with a convincing
demeanor of excitement and wonder.
And it's contagious!
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