Gilbert White & Smallpox

2020 has been a year where our health has been at the forefront, as we have watched the devastating impact that COVID-19 has had on the world. Over the year there have been many points where various members of the Gilbert White & The Oates Collections team have exclaimed ‘what

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Anna raises £300 for Gilbert White’s 300th!

Gilbert White & The Oates Collections volunteer Anna Elder has been fundraising for the Selborne museum during lockdown. Anna has just embarked on her 150th walk in lockdown, after each walk of two miles Anna donates £2 to the museum meaning that over the last couple of months she has raised £300.   ‘I started the walks on the 22nd March to do some

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Culture Recovery Fund ensures future of our museum!

Gilbert White Museum awarded nearly £170,000  Gilbert White & The Oates Collections has been awarded £168,778 as part of the Government’s £1.576 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future, the Culture Secretary has announced today.

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Retracing Scott & Amundsen’s journey to the South Pole. Part 2

Roald Amundsen’s original expedition plan was to seek the geographic North Pole, but two expeditioners, Cook and Peary, had in September 1909 been reported to have achieved that goal. Keen to continue a polar expedition Amundsen turned his attention to the South Pole, but kept the revised plans under wraps.

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Lockdown Letter

In these strange times we have a chance to glimpse our natural world. We realise that over the years we have been overwhelmed by an intrusive world full of noise and pollution. We appear out of harmony with our natural world and yet, I reflect, when I was born over

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My First Visit

My first visit.  Volunteer and author Louis Coulson tells us about his very first visit to the Wakes. As far back as I can remember I was interested in Nature, especially birds. To start with, there was A Bird Book for the Pocket by Edmund  Sandars, usefully divided  into Large Birds and Small Birds. I

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Gilbert White statue unveiled by Alan Titchmarsh

Alan Titchmarsh unveiled today (Tuesday 21st July) a statue of the 18th century natural history pioneer Gilbert White to mark the 300th anniversary of Gilbert’s birth. In his speech Alan said ‘You may wonder what on earth an 18th century clergyman can contribute to the way we live today, with

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Gilbert White & The Oates Collections rescued thanks to National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Gilbert White & The Oates Collections have been successful in being awarded £47,500 from National Lottery Heritage Fund to support thanks to the Heritage Emergency Fund. Gilbert White & The Oates Collections is a rural independent museum celebrating the lives of explorers of the natural world, principally Gilbert White, the

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‘A man in total harmony with his world’

Gilbert White – “A man in total harmony with his world” – Sir David Attenborough Trustee Philip Geddes explains what makes Gilbert White so remarkable.  Gilbert White (1720 – 1793) is widely regarded as ‘the father of ecology’, the study of the interactions between organisms and their biophysical environment. You

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Flora Selborniensis: Then & Now

Flora Selborniensis: Then and Now In the tricentenary year of Gilbert White’s birth, we are carrying out a project to repeat the year-long document that became the Flora Selborniensis. White made regular observations of plants, particularly when they came into flower, during 1766. He also recorded what the weather was

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