The Man who Almost Brought Dinosaurs to Central Park

The middle of the 19th century was a truly eruptive time for science. The pieces had been collecting for years, and finally some dedicated and educated scientists were ready to start assembling them. Literally, in the case of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, a sculptor from England who worked with other inquisitive minds of his time to bring the first life-sized replicas of dinosaurs the world had ever seen.

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Working with great naturalist Richard Owen, Hawkins sculpted a set of dinosaurs for London's Crystal Palace park in 1852. The 33 concrete sculptures drew some serious media attention and sprung Hawkins into the spotlight.

In 1868 Hawkins traveled to America and was presented with an exciting opportunity. He was asked to design and mount the skeleton of a Hadrosaurus in New Jersey which had been the first dinosaur skeleton unearthed in the United States when a local man had uncovered it on his property 30 years before. Hawkins took the offer and Hadrosaurus became the first mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world.

If the individual bones and teeth of these beasts weren't exciting enough, the full mount which towered above visitors would have been quite a sight. It was around this time that much of the world was getting swept up in a Dinomania and, consequently, Hawkins received another exciting offer: New York's Central Park, not to be outdone by the Crystal Palace Park in south London, needed its own set of dinosaur sculptures.

 He set up a studio and began working, but local corrupt politics got in the way. It is said that "Boss" Tweed had the models Hawkins had been working on destroyed and buried in the South Side of the park. I'm guessing they are still there today. ALthough extremely saddened by the events in New York, Hawkin's continued his work in other ways including creating a series of paintings in Princeton, New Jersey, at what is now Princeton University.

A couple of years ago, I gave Princeton's archives department a call and found that they still have much of his work in their collection. I think a road trip is in order.

Learn more about BWH here, here, or here.