Felix Driver: Maritime Science and The Visual Culture of Exploration - The Albums of a Victorian Naval Surgeon at The Royal Society

Naval officers in general, and surgeons in particular, played a significant role in the development of maritime science, through their observations and their collections. This richly-illustrated talk explores the visual culture of maritime science, from coastal sketches to ethnographic observation. In particular, it looks at the albums of John Linton Palmer RN, a naval surgeon who served in the Pacific during the 1850s and 1860s. It considers the recording of topographic, antiquarian, ethnographic, microscopic and other sorts of data in the form of sketches in logbooks, diaries and journals; the assembling of such materials into personalised albums, part of a distinctive naval tradition; and the significance of these forms of visual heritage today both within Britain and overseas.