Frank Buckland’s ‘Museum of Economic Fish Culture’ suffered great damage during the first World War and much of what was left after the war was destroyed by the ‘Board of Survey’.
Loaned exhibits, which remained intact, went back to their owners and the rest went on permanent loan to the Scottish Fisheries Museum.
I mention Frank here because he is a good example of high human ‘effort’ and one that I like. Like Darwin and Da Vinci, Frank Buckland followed his insight at a time when others were following the tracks of an established trail. UK readers might imagine him as a Victorian version of David Attenborough who published his version of The Blue Planet 1, 2 and more, on paper – writings full of enthusiasm and energy to make his understandings sparkle in the minds of his fellow beings.
Through history, many individuals keep going against the odds and many die in relative obscurity having spirited what might seem to be only a small and close group of immediate friends. But there is nothing that leads me to believe that the more widespread a thought, the better it is.
Frank Buckland turned thought to print and published “Land and Water”. This enabled him to share globally. When digitized, these thoughts will be shared with countless millions of people – safe from paper mites but never from post editors.
Today, with the ease of publishing ‘keyboard to cloud, texts spread almost instantly but fade far faster whilst going further afield. Tomorrow, maybe neural upload, cloud to brain?
It is amazing to think of the effort that some people put into life and Frank Buckland was one of those fun humans that was keen on doing so many things. He was a visionary because he flexed his curiosity as you would a muscle. He would eat new foods, seek out new people, open minds, think that extra light year and might have made a good captain of the ‘Starship Enterprise’.
This ‘openess’ of spirit plays a vital role in the way society develops and those with closed minds can severely damage their own health and more importantly, the health of all other lifeforms.
My research on Frank Buckland led to an exhibition opened by the Lord Mayor in Birmingham Central Library. Exhibits in the exhibition from the first Museum of Economic Fish Culture were returned to Arlington Mill Museum, World of Water Museum and Bibury Trout Farm but here’s a collection of images from that exhibition:
There’s a magical showcase of traditional Elf Land Features nestling into a secret garden near you. It’s secret, so you may never find it, but the little people who built its features probably did part of their apprenticeship here at the HoBB.