John Ruskin | Autograph letter signed, to geologist John Phillips referring to Oxford Museum of Natural History, c.1860

John Ruskin

Autograph letter signed, to Professor John Phillips

sending him a proof of his "most admirable and interesting letter" and congratulating him that he is "thinking of allowing Mr Tyrwhitt to put glaciers on your walls... Tyrwhitt's drawings are... truest and most loving renderings of Alpine phenomena possible", 2 pages, 8vo, [no place, c.1860], mounted, some spotting

Professor John Phillips was one of the leading geologists of the age, and was involved in the foundation of the Museum of Natural History in Oxford. Ruskin is referring to some alpine murals painted by Rev. Richard St John Tyrwhitt which were commissioned for the new museum. Tyrwhitt was a friend and admirer of Ruskin and a member of the Guild of St George.

It is possible that the proof letter Ruskin refers to was for Henry W. Ackland’s The Oxford Museum: remarks addressed to a meeting of architectural societies, with letters from John Ruskin and John Phillips (1860).