Hadrosaurus foulkii
Dublin Core
Title
Hadrosaurus foulkii
Description
A VIDEO TOUR of the exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
In October, 1858, a crew of local diggers led by Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences member William Foulke excavated the nearly-complete skeleton of a gigantic prehistoric from a marl pit on the Haddonfield farm of John Estaugh Hopkins. Incredibly, the mysterious creature had the anatomical features of both a lizard and a bird.
Every dinosaur skeleton mounted in every museum in the world traces its roots to Haddonfield's Hadrosaurus foulkii. Along with being the first reasonably intact dinosaur skeleton ever found, the New Jersey fossil was also the first dinosaur skeleton ever put on public display.
The very concept of reassembling and erecting the massive bones of a dinosaur in a life-like posture as a museum exhibit was pioneered at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences by a team composed of Dr. Joseph Leidy, Edward Drinker Cope and Waterhouse Hawkins. Hawkins, a sculptor from London, was the primary artist and engineer on the project. Leidy, director of the Academy, was the scientist who documented and interpreted the Hadrosaurus foulkii find. Cope, a professor of zoology, was the Academy's curator.
In 1868, when the completed project was unveiled, it created a sensation for the public and scientific community. Three stories high, the monstrous animal drew record-breaking crowds at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences; providing the first hard evidence that, aside from their scientific significance, dinosaurs could also be great revenue producers for museums. Scientists and museum curators from across North American and Europe flocked to the exhibit.
The intrest in the Hadrosaurus was so great that copies of the dinosaur were made ...........
"In 1879 a copy of the Hadrosaurus foulkii mount was constructed and shipped to the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland, where it became the first dinosaur mount ever displayed in Europe."
~Madeleine Hodges~
In October, 1858, a crew of local diggers led by Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences member William Foulke excavated the nearly-complete skeleton of a gigantic prehistoric from a marl pit on the Haddonfield farm of John Estaugh Hopkins. Incredibly, the mysterious creature had the anatomical features of both a lizard and a bird.
Every dinosaur skeleton mounted in every museum in the world traces its roots to Haddonfield's Hadrosaurus foulkii. Along with being the first reasonably intact dinosaur skeleton ever found, the New Jersey fossil was also the first dinosaur skeleton ever put on public display.
The very concept of reassembling and erecting the massive bones of a dinosaur in a life-like posture as a museum exhibit was pioneered at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences by a team composed of Dr. Joseph Leidy, Edward Drinker Cope and Waterhouse Hawkins. Hawkins, a sculptor from London, was the primary artist and engineer on the project. Leidy, director of the Academy, was the scientist who documented and interpreted the Hadrosaurus foulkii find. Cope, a professor of zoology, was the Academy's curator.
In 1868, when the completed project was unveiled, it created a sensation for the public and scientific community. Three stories high, the monstrous animal drew record-breaking crowds at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences; providing the first hard evidence that, aside from their scientific significance, dinosaurs could also be great revenue producers for museums. Scientists and museum curators from across North American and Europe flocked to the exhibit.
The intrest in the Hadrosaurus was so great that copies of the dinosaur were made ...........
"In 1879 a copy of the Hadrosaurus foulkii mount was constructed and shipped to the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland, where it became the first dinosaur mount ever displayed in Europe."
~Madeleine Hodges~
Source
http://hadrosaurus.com/
Museums and American Intellectual Life, 1876-1926 by Steven Conn
Museums and American Intellectual Life, 1876-1926 by Steven Conn
Files
Citation
“Hadrosaurus foulkii,” Materiality and Spectacle 2015, accessed November 27, 2025, https://ds-omeka.haverford.edu/materiality-and-spectacle-2015/items/show/94.