MESHING ALL OF GEOLOGY WITH THE HISTORY OF LIFE: THE “SYNOPTIC VIEW OF THE LEADING PHENOMENA OF GEOLOGY*,” 1836 (WILLIAM BUCKLAND AND THOMAS WEBSTER)

William Buckland (1784-1856) was no less ambitious than to attempt a synthesis of all that was known of geology and paleontology in his 2-volume, 1836 Bridgewater Treatise, Geology and Mineralogy with respect to Natural Theology. The 2nd volume of this international best-seller is devoted to copious detailed illustrations, mostly of fossils from his and many other collections. Plate 1 of Volume 2 is a tipped-in, multiply folded, hand-colored, idealized cross section, based on the geology of Europe. This cross-section was an “improved” version of one that geologist, artist and lecturer Thomas Webster (1772-1844) had used to accompany his talks. It is organized by geologic time, and Buckland went an ambitious step beyond by illustrating the Transition, Secondary, and Tertiary sections with 120 pictures of representative plant and animal fossils, drafted for the volume by Joseph Fisher of Oxford. The explanation for the figure is 17 pages long.

While cross-sections had been published together with maps (Smith, Cuvier and Brongniart, Maclure, e.g.), and plates of fossils published to accompany stratigraphic (cross-) sections (notably by William Smith), the synoptic view presented by Buckland and Webster was a tour-de-force illustrating all of geologic time as set out by rocks and fossils. Buckland’s Treatise was one of the most popular 19^th-century books on natural history, widely distributed and influential, and Plate 1 in particular illustrated life’s progression through geologic time. A version of this figure, including a key rather than the 17-page explanation, appeared in Heinrich Berghaus’ 1840s monumental Physikalischer Atlas. This version today is noted as a pioneering work in graphical illustration.

[subtitled:] *”Besides 120 figures of Plants and Animals, this Plate represents 30 kinds of Sedimentary Deposits, and 8 varieties of Unstratified Rocks; it also shows the dispositions of intruded Dykes, Metalliferous Veins, and Faults”

[title on Plate:] “Ideal Section of a Portion of the Earth’s Crust, intended to show The Order of Deposition of the Stratified Rocks, with their relation to The Unstratified Rocks, Composed by Thomas Webster, F.G.S. &c. The Plants and Animals Selected and Arranged by Dr. Buckland and Engraved by Joseph Fisher.”