Features / history
Bristol’s forgotten fossil collector
James Johnson’s home in Hotwells was filled to the rafters with fossils during the first half of the 19th century.
After he died in 1844, an eight-day sale of his fossil collection took place at the house on Dowry Parade, with museums such as the Natural History Museum represented as well as private buyers.
This ammonite on Dowry Parade is likely to have come from James Johnson’s collection – photo: Martin Booth
The star item in this sale was a huge fossilised skull of a 190m-year-old ichthyosaur discovered by Mary Anning in Lyme Regis on the Jurassic coast in Dorset in 1813, which Johnson had bought for ten guineas and had transported back to Bristol.
is needed now More than ever
The skull is now in the collection of Bristol Museum, where it will be put it on display from Saturday for the first time in more than 30 years.
Johnson and his surgeon son, James, amassed a huge collection of fossils, many from Dundry and the local area but also others from further afield.
During their lifetime, the Bristol Institution was a major centre for fossil research, with Mary Anning herself having close links with the organisation.
Founded in 1823, the Bristol Institution was Bristol’s first public museum. It is now Freemasons’ Hall at the foot of Park Street.
At the auction of Johnson’s fossil collection, John Naish Sanders outbid the British Museum and bought the ichthyosaur specimen for the Bristol Institution, a forerunner of Bristol Museum where it will soon go back on display for the first time in a generation.
A plaque remembering James Johnson at his former home in Hotwells – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo: Martin Booth
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