New Years Eve Dinner Inside Iguanodon, 1853

New Years Eve Dinner Inside Iguanodon, 1853

The "Dinner in the Iguanodon Model" is the best known story about Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. It took place on New Year's Eve December 31, 1853. The host was Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, an artist-sculptor who became famous for the dinosaur sculptures (33 in all) that he created for a great exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. Waterhouse had been working with the paleontologist Sir Richard Owen to give the world its first glimpse of what one of these massive prehistoric creatures looked like. The illustration depicts a collection of gentlemen sitting around a table inside one of the Iguanodon models under construction over the winter 1853-54. In the image, waiters deliver dinner. On the floor are pieces of the mold used to cast the model. Different reports put Richard Owen at the head of the table and Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins standing center and facing the viewer. The model is surrounded by a tent decorated with a chandelier and four plaques honoring famous paleontologists (William Buckland, Georges Cuvier, Richard Owen, Gideon Mantell). Because the Iguanodon model stood tall, a stage was required for waiters and guests to reach inside. Published in Illustrated London News, January 7, 1854.

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4500 x 2906 px | 37.4 MB

38.1 x 24.6 cm | 15.0 x 9.7 in (300 dpi)