Physical Relief Models by Thomas Bayley

New on the RGS website is a feature on the PhD research carried out by Dr. George Tobin.

He is looking at the collection of physical relief models which are curated in the RGS' collections.

His AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership at the University of Glasgow (2017 - 2024) looked at the history of physical relief models in British geography. 

George’s research was situated contextually in intellectual history debates at the end of the 19th century, particularly surrounding pedagogy and education, at a time when school geography was becoming more established in Britain, and geography departments were emerging in universities.

Raised plaster relief models have been used throughout geography’s history to depict landscapes in three dimensions for use as teaching aids, visual illustrations, research instruments and as objects of display in museums and exhibitions. The models George studied and which are held at the Society, were produced by the sculptor Thomas Bayley. 

They were used to produce colour plate illustrations for the 1951 publication The Earth’s Crust, a popular geography and geology book written by Sir Laurence Dudley Stamp, a former President of the Society.

Earlier in the week I had the great pleasure to come across the models on a series of shelves while having a tour of the bowels of Lowther Lodge as part of my work as Vice President: Education of the Society. There were quite a few of different sizes. I intend to take a closer look some time.

I still regret not buying one of these models that I saw in an antique shop in Ghent the last time I visited.

It was in the window of the shop. It certainly wasn't plaster of Paris and certainly not a Bayley, but was of a karst landscape and cave system. Here's my picture of it below taken through the window...

Next time I go back I'll see if it's still there....