IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 378 LDGSL/74
Held at: Geological Society of London
Title: MORTIMER, John Robert (1825-1911)
Date(s): [1875]
Level of description: Series
Extent: 1 notebook (29pp)
Name of creator(s): MORTIMER | John Robert | 1825-1911 | archaeologist and geologist
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
John Robert Mortimer was born on 15 June 1825 in Fimber, a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at the village school in Fridaythorpe. He started a business as a corn merchant in Fimber, later moving to Driffield where he remained for the rest of his life.
Mortimer's interest in scientific enquiry was inspired by the Great Exhibition of 1851. Later visits to Edward Tindall's archaeological and geological collections at Bridlington spurred him to develop a collection of his own, indeed he purchased one of his first specimens from Tindall. At first he collected chalk fossils and flint implements from the Yorkshire wolds, training the local farm workers to recognise any potential specimens for himself and the small band of other collectors in the neighbourhood. However competition for collecting grew with other enthusiasts descending on the area and paying the same farm workers to find material for them instead. Faced with a dearth of material, particularly those which were archaeological in nature, Mortimer turned to excavation himself - concentrating on Bronze Age burial mounds.
Concerned that other local collections were being sold to or broken up by collectors outside of the area, Mortimer offered his collection at half its value to East Riding county council. The local council were not keen, but with the aid of Colonel G H Clarke the collection was purchased in its entirety in 1914, where the majority of it is still held by Hull Museum. Mortimer died in 1911.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Manuscript notebook, containing a draft of a paper on the distribution of flint in the Chalk of Yorkshire, by John Robert Mortimer, [1875]. [Note: paper makes reference to a map and tracings, however these are not included.]
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Access is by appointment only, daily readership fee is applicable unless you are a member of the Society. Please contact the Archivist for further information.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to copyright and the condition of the original, may be supplied. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Archivist.
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Paper was received by the Society, 24 December 1875.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
Mortimer's papers, collections and maps, 1850-1911, are held by Hull and East Riding Museum.
Publication note:
Paper was read before the Society, 21 June 1876. Abstract was published as: "The Distribution of Flint in the Chalk of Yorkshire", by J R Mortimer, communicated by William Whitaker, 'Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society', vol 32 (1876) p131 [Proceedings].
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; Mortimer, J R "Notes on the History of the Driffield Museum of Antiquities and Geological Specimens", 'Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society' vol 14 (1900), pp88-96. Description by John Thackray; revised by Caroline Lam
Date(s) of descriptions: Dec 1983; Aug 2012