Siberia! Geological Adventures in the 19th Century Imperial Russia
On Thursday 28 April 2016 the Library hosted a talk by author and journalist Nick Fielding about the 19th Century adventurers Charles Austin and Thomas Atkinson.
In January 1847 two Englishmen, Charles Austin (1819 - 1893) and Thomas Atkinson (1799 - 1861) set out together on a journey across Russia and Siberia. Over the next year, the men would share carriages and horses, posthouses, hovels and yurts as they made their way through the Urals, the Altai Mountains and the Great Steppes of Central Asia, following in the geological footsteps of the great Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) who had led a famous expedition to the area in 1829...
The evening opened with a
traditional Russian tea ceremony provided by pupils from
AZBUKA Russian-English school and concluded with a special
display of material from the archives relating to other geologists in Russia from the period.
Image Gallery
View a selection of images from the evening