To usher in the spring, Magdalen Library & Archives are happy to announce the start of a new exhibition devoted to the natural world. The Flora & Fauna of Magdalen College (co-curated by two of our Prize Fellows, Dr Sandy Hetherington and Dr Antone Martinho-Truswell) will explore the College’s natural history – from the site’s prehistoric origins, to its modern day gardening. Visitors will have a chance to see mammoth teeth and snake’s-head fritillaries, prize-winning pigs and Madonna lilies, the Flora & Fauna art competition shortlist, poetry inspired by our natural setting, and much more.
The official opening of Flora & Fauna is on 23 April (Monday of 1st week) at 5:30pm. The exhibition will be open to the general public on Wednesday afternoons from 2-4:30pm (25 April to 10 October) throughout Trinity Term and the Long Vacation. Members of the University may visit the exhibition free of charge; members of the public will need to pay the standard admission to the college.
We have also organised a series of events to accompany the exhibition:
23 April, 5:30pm – Grand Opening, with talks by co-curators Dr Sandy Hetherington and Dr Antone Martinho-Truswell
28 May, 5:30pm – Library Salon (an evening of art, poetry, music and drinks inspired by the College’s natural history)
25 June, 5.30pm – Liam Dolan, Sherardian Professor of Botany, who will speak on the subject of Humphrey Repton and his famous “Red Book” – a collection of landscape and building plans for Magdalen at the beginning of the 19th-century that never came to fruition
8 October, 5:30pm – Kathy Willis, Professor of Biodiversity & Director of Science at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who will discuss how the study of natural history can offer solutions to contemporary global problems
The talks will take place in the Summer Common Room, and there will be an opportunity to view the exhibition in the Old Library afterwards. Admission to these events is free, but spaces are limited. If you would like to attend, RSVP to library@magd.ox.ac.uk.
