The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, also known as Dinosaur Court, are a series of sculptures of dinosaurs and extinct mammals located in Crystal Palace, London. Commissioned in 1852 and unveiled in 1854, they were the first dinosaur sculptures in the world, pre-dating the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by six years. Designed and sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins with the help of Richard Owen, they were Grade II listed buildings from 1973, extensively restored in 2002 and upgraded to Grade I listed in 2007.
The models themselves are now considered out of date and to varying degrees inaccurate.
Read more about Crystal Palace Dinosaurs: History, The Sculptures, In Literature and Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words crystal and/or palace:
“The Thirties dreamed white marble and slipstream chrome, immortal crystal and burnished bronze, but the rockets on the Gernsback pulps had fallen on London in the dead of night, screaming. After the war, everyone had a car—no wings for it—and the promised superhighway to drive it down, so that the sky itself darkened, and the fumes ate the marble and pitted the miracle crystal.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“You weep, you weep for the sun an Image.
...
the wind calls hideously,
woe for the children’s fate,
woe for a palace rent,
woe, woe for these who spent
life-blood
in hate.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)