The extraordinary life of a pioneering museum curator

摘要

Most people with an interest in nature have surely heard of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer in connection with the discovery of the first living coelacanth known to science. Her efforts put East London and its new museum on the world map. I joined the staff of the museum in 1988, so I knew ‘Marge’ during her 80s and 90s when she often visited the museum to be filmed about the coelacanth or to attend museum functions. Reading Curator and Crusader, I enjoyed learning so much more about this remarkable woman and what she achieved during her 42 years as curator and subsequent years of active retirement. Mike Bruton remembers Marge from his school days and gives her credit for the positive impact she had on his career. He realised that she ‘lived a story worth telling’ and did an excellent job piecing together this highly recommended biography from diverse sources of information, greatly assisted by Nancy Tietz, ex-director of the East London Museum (ELM). He used transcripts of Marge’s father’s diaries, an unpublished manuscript on the history of her family, Marge’s illustrated scrapbooks, copious autobiographical notes and minutes of meetings, letters, speeches, newspaper clippings and field notes in the ELM archives. Extracts are often reproduced verbatim – a style I found informative, and which allows readers to make up their own minds about the content. There are ample illustrations: black and white photos, sketches and 16 pages of colour photos. The six appendices include the full citation for the award of her honorary doctorate and titles of a selection of her newspaper articles.