About the Exhibition
In 1815, William Smith, a canal digger and orphaned son of an English blacksmith, published an epochal and stunningly hand-painted map that would become the final establishment of stratigraphical sequencing and change the science of earth’s history forever.
Through his work in the canals and his scrupulous study of fossils, Smith discovered that the organization of these petrified specimens corresponded to, and thus represented, the host of different strata that occupied the underside of England. Out of this epiphany, Smith was able to trace the plenteous strata clear across the country, documenting both the makeup of each rock layer and the fossils contained within. Smith’s simple idea that one could use fossils to identify strata opened up a completely new phase of science, for his principles laid the foundation for a new chronology of earth’s history.
William Smith has been dubbed by scholars as the “Father of English Geology” and his map has been equally touted as “The Map That Changed the World.” Because nineteenth-century England was powered by coal, the fossil remains of ancient swamps, by employing Smith's principles, informed mineral geologists could now easily detect where coal could and couldn’t be found. In addition, Smith’s pedantic cataloging of fossils awakened the world to the importance of these remains to the geological record. Because different species existed in different strata, theories about the evolution of these genera, and as a result man, developed. Darwin is forever indebted to William Smith.
The Library Foundation along with the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library is about to embark on a new exhibition series titled, Treasures of the Library. The Map That Changed the World is the pilot exhibition, the first in a series of exhibitions that highlights the rare book collection of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. On display is William Smith’s map, Delineations of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland, one of the few existing original maps completed by Smith in 1815, in addition to his four completed volumes of prints, titled, Strata Identified by Organized Fossils, that he had published from 1816-1819 that identified strata by fossil and have the odd conceit of being color coded to match the corresponding tint of the strata on his map. These original volumes are extremely rare, with only eleven known copies documented in the United States. In addition, the rare book room holds and exhibits some preliminary prints done by James Sowerby (engraver and printer of Smith’s Strata Identified) with actual notes done in Smith’s hand.
In addition to Smith’s work, on display are other geological treasures from the rare book room, including Georg Agricola De re metalica (1556), one of the earliest printed works on the topics of mining and metallurgy; De solido intra solidum naturaliter (1669), published by Nicholas Steno, this work is the foundation for geology, paleontology, and crystallography. Steno was the first to show that strata form the earth’s crust and he represented the six types of the earth’s structure; and James Hall’s Geology of New York (1842-1843), one of the earliest comprehensive works on the geology of New York State. It includes several dramatic hand-colored illustrations showing local geology, including the bluffs along Lake Erie. Many more historical treasures are on display that demonstrate ideologies prior to Smith’s epiphany and the wide-ranging influence his discoveries had and still hold. To be in possession of such rare and influential records and to have the ability to display and raise awareness of this remarkable time in history is a truly unique and fortunate opportunity.