IT IS A FACT often repeated, but one seldom fully appreciated, that the Museum established in Ipswich in 1846, and opened in December 1847, received the patronage and practical support of many of the most distinguished scientists of Great Britain.

The sixty lithographicMuseum Portraits by ThomasMaguire, depicting many (but not all) of the Honorary Members and Vice-Presidents, were produced at the personal expense of George Ransome, FLS (l), but are today known more as portrayals of eminent individuals than for the enlightened motives which surrounded their creation. Ransome, a townsman, was in many ways the prime mover in the Museum's formation. Excitement and acclaim surrounded the four Anniversary Meetings and the many public lectures, which reached their high point in the visit of the British Association for the Advancement of Science to Ipswich in 1851. They were also owing to the energetic involvement of Professor J.S. Henslow (1796–1861) (l) (Plate 1), who assisted and advised from the beginning, delivered the Museum's inaugural lecture, and in 1850 became its President. Although these national expectations and celebrity performances were attenuated by the financial collapse of the Museum in January 1853 and its adoption soon afterwards by the Town of Ipswich (sanctioned by public referendum) under the provisions of the ‘Beetle Act’, Henslow remained closely involved in a curatorial way until his death, and maintained his original educational objective, which was nothing less than the moral, intellectual and spiritual empowerment of ordinary people.

There could hardly have been a more portentous hour in the history of the modern understanding of our natural environment, and our place in it, nor more suggestive auspices than those represented by Henslow in his relation to the wider scientific establishment, than the two decades which directly preceded the publication of Darwin's theory of Natural Selection in 1859, and the social, theological and scientific ramifications of that synthesis of theories, which still continues to be explored.