Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection  Solved

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Thule
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Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Thule »

I've had a response from one of the Cobbold family, to the effect that there's little recollection some 40 years on of the cuttings and notes whilst they were in the possession of AC's son; from which I would guess that what Peter B has traced through Gordon Rowley could well be all there is of that ilk. However, there could still be floating around somewhere a collection of glass photographic plates/slides (I'd guess the former), edges taped in black, possibly in a wooden slotted tray; maybe as many as 60. These would have been gifted, I imagine, at the same time as the notes etc by AC's son, say late 1960s. Might Mr Rowley have any knowledge of them perhaps?
From what you say, Peter B, in your previous post about 'they' being in effect the Council it looks like I may as well abandon my secret hope that I might eventually track down a diary for AC's time as curator to the Darrah collection. It had struck me as curious that he should maintain such a detailed record of his work elsewhere in the 1890s (a diary which has passed down through the Cobbold family) yet there not be any similar record of his curating a specialist collection. Still, I'll be contacting the various record offices etc, just in case...
Peter B,
I sent a copy of a transcript of the Daily Dispatch piece on the Darrah collection from 1904 to what I guessed might be your email address @manchestercactus.co.uk - as given on http://manchestercactus.co.uk/contactus.aspx . I hope you got it? Or was I totally up a gum tree?!
Tolly
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Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Pete A »

I've mentioned everything Gordon can recall apart from a suggestion that John Cox may have more nuggets of information.
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Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Dot »

I found this on a family history site,

Dot.


Title: Re: Lilian (Duckworth) Darrah
Post by: Birtle on Sunday 10 July 11 14:24 BST (UK)
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Hi Ian. i thought you might be interested to know, if you don't already, that the Charles Darrah mentioned in your post was not just a lead manufacturer - as shown in the 1881 census - but also an avid collector of cacti and succulents. His collection, reputed at the time to be second only to Kew's in its importance, was gifted by his widow in the early 1900s to Manchester Corporation. The Corp wasn't unanimous in its appreciation of the gift according to newspaper reports at the time, but finally built new glass-houses at Alexandra Park, Manchester (then in its heyday) to house the collection. They were even bombed by the suffragettes in 1913 though not much damage done...! I gather that the Manchester smog contributed to the depletion of the collection in the 1930s and later, but some of the plants still survive and are now I believe at Wythenshawe Park. See http://manchestercactus.co.uk/Wythenshawerevisited.aspx
Birtle :)
Btw, in case the plants element of this tale interests anyone, a catalogue of the collection was produced in 1908(?). It was compiled by Arthur Cobbold who had been Darrah's curator and was also curator of the collection at Ally Park until the early 1930s. Unfortunately, he was not credited in the book with its compilation. In fact everyone under the sun bar AC is mentioned on the title-page, something - as his son recalled - which rankled somewhat...


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Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Peter B »

Hallo Thule,

Unfortunately the transcript hasn't reached me for the simple reason the microsoft site our Branch site is registered with is an absolute pain in the neck. Every time I sign in it claims it doesn't recognise my password so I am unable to look at my emails etc there. I have had to reregister my password that many times I am sick to death of it and presently it isn't even allowing me to do this.

If you can send it via a PM on this site that would be useful or possibly you can send it by logging on to my profile and emailing. I am not much of a computer whizz.

Peter B Manchester Branch
Peter B,
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NCSS/BCSS member since late 1960's - strong interest in mesembs in general and Lithops in particular, Haworthias and enjoy growing all forms of cacti & succulents
Thule

Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Thule »

Hi Peter B
Just to say I've got your email. I'm not set up to do attachments on this forum but if you are, and if you'd like to post the DD 1904 article to it I'll be more than happy. (It might be a bit 'neater' than my putting it all within the main body of a post; but if you'd rather I did then by all means say so!)
Best wishes
Tolly
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Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Peter B »

Hi Tolly,

I sent an email recently letting you know I had made into the site email so I have received it thank you. Makes very interesting reading. Wish you could find all the stuff you're looking for.

Peter B Manchester Branch
Peter B,
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NCSS/BCSS member since late 1960's - strong interest in mesembs in general and Lithops in particular, Haworthias and enjoy growing all forms of cacti & succulents
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Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Pete A »

Dot wrote: Btw, in case the plants element of this tale interests anyone, a catalogue of the collection was produced in 1908(?). It was compiled by Arthur Cobbold who had been Darrah's curator and was also curator of the collection at Ally Park until the early 1930s. Unfortunately, he was not credited in the book with its compilation. In fact everyone under the sun bar AC is mentioned on the title-page, something - as his son recalled - which rankled somewhat...


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It's interesting that you mention this, as Gordon Rowley has ACs own copy of the catalogue (see earlier pictures) and Gordon deduced from this that AC had produced it.
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Thule

Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Thule »

Pete A wrote: It's interesting that you mention this, as Gordon Rowley has ACs own copy of the catalogue (see earlier pictures) and Gordon deduced from this that AC had produced it.
I'm glad to report that one enlightened book dealer has reached the same conclusion, though others still live and die by what's recorded on the title page!
There's enlightenment to be found here: http://www.holletts-rarebooks.co.uk/pdf ... ing-09.pdf (item 523) though whether or not that copy of the catalogue of Darrah's collection is still available i don't know. I'm lucky in that the family already has a couple of copies, handed down from AC.
Tolly
Thule

Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Thule »

This transcription of an article from the Daily Dispatch of 1904 may be of interest to people reading this thread. I made it from a 100 year old original, very fragile and yellow so there are a few [gaps, represented by square brackets] in the text and the pictures won't reproduce.
Daily Dispatch March 38, 1904:
The Darrah collection of cacti which has been presented to the Manchester Corporation

[Photographs of 1) ‘The hedgehog cactus’ 2) ‘Needle-spine cactus’]

One has only to inspect the Darrah collection of cacti to be simply amazed that any member of the City Council, least of all of the Parks Committee, could have had any hesitation about the manner in which the generous offer of the family should be received.
The collection is a unique one. There is not one like it in the country. That at Kew pales before it. The collection is the most complete one owned by any private individual or public authority. In money value it is worth £4,000; if sold under advantageous circumstances it would probably realise another thousand pounds.
And yet, incredible as it appears, the Parks Committee of the City Corporation, by nine votes to seven, negatived a recommendation to accept a free gift of this kind! When the offer subsequently came before the City Council, this decision was only upset by 46 votes to 29. The grounds for refusing the offer were the cost of erecting houses, and the fear that the collection would only interest comparatively few of the citizens. The first objection is only worthy of a petty shopkeeper; the second, based upon ignorance, can only excite sympathy for the persons who entertain it. That an offer, as magnificent as it is generous – the collection may be described without exaggeration as of almost national importance – should have been treated in this scurvy fashion is a grave reflection upon civic manners and civic common sense.
The collection described
Fortunately, however, the citizens of Manchester are now the possessors of the collection, and I purpose in this article (writes a “Daily Dispatch” representative) telling them what it contains. By permission of the Darrah family I was allowed to go through the glass-house at Holly Point, H[eaton] Mersey, wherein this wonderful collection of cacti continues for the present to […..]. A better guide than Mr. A. [Cobbold, the] head gardener, could not have been desired. The collection has practically grown up under his care, and what he doesn’t know about cactaceous plants is not worth knowing. For about six years he has made a special study of this branch of horticulture, and, with unrivalled opportunities for following it up, his knowledge is exceptional.
The collection comprises about 3,500 speciments, divided into innumerable varieties. The late Mr. Charles Darrah was between [photograph of ‘Man’s Hand Cactus’] seven and eight years in getting it together. Cacti were his hobby, and in gratifying it he spared no expense. They have been gathered by collectors in North and South America, and the West Indies, Mexico, Arizona, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Colorada are some of the places laid under contribution. In many cases valuable specimens have had to be carried by mules down the mountain slopes, and then entrained to the nearest port for shipment. The cost of carrying one plant to Heaton Mersey - the cereus Chilensis – was heavy enough to give pause to any but a wealthy man. Its size and weight may be gathered from the fact that that it took eight men to rear it in the position it at present occupies. And handling a cactus has difficulties and dangers peculiarly its own.
Grotesque shapes
It would only bore the general public to enter into a detailed description of the collection by giving the divisions and sub-divisions of thr cactus family. Only experts would care to read of the phyllocacti, and echinocacti, the opuntias and the epiphyllia, the mammillarias, and the cereuses.
The striking characteristic of the cactaceoe is grotesqueness. In this respect they are totally different from anything else in the vegetable kingdom. Some of these curious plants seem to bear a relationship to the animal kingdom. One species in its young state is covered with wool like sheep. Others, by their form, or the way they climb or run along the ground, suggest snakes or the arms or coils of an octopus. One well-known species has long, thick, white hair like that of an old man. Others again resemble sculptured columns in green, whilst one variety might be mistaken for pieces of rock. As you walk round the Darrah collection you observe cacti that in succession suggest hedgehogs, serpents, the human hand, a human brain, puff-balls, and what-not. And as they vary in shape, so do they in size – from the tiny cactus that grows in an air-tight bottle to the giant cereus whose head touches the roof of the house.
Differing yet so widely they nearly all are alike in respect of being protected by spines so sharp that many of them might be made of steel. In some varieties these spines are barbed and hooked, and are used by the natives of South America for fishing purposes. A 20lb. weight can be lifted by some of them. The warning “habds-off” need not be given when these cacti are exhibited in public; their appearance will be quite sufficient to keep the curious at a respectful distance.
Flowering qualities
Grotesqueness is not the only characteristic of cactaceoe. Most of them have floral recommendations to offer though in some cases of a trivial order.The flower of the cereus grandiflorus, or night-blooming cereus, for instance, is one of the most magnificent in Nature, and is worth going far to see. The flowers, too, of the sub-genus echinocereus are most brilliant in their colouring, consisting, as they do, of all the colours of the rainbow. Unlike most of the cereuses which only bloom for one night, many have the desirable quality of expanding every day for a week or ten days. The echinopsis produce very beautiful, sweetly-scented flowers, ranging in colour from a pure white to blood red. The mistltoe cacti are useful for hanging purposes owing to their profuse flowering qualities. The colours of the phyllocacti are also very brilliant.
Food and drink
The cactus plays an important part in the economy of nature. It is to the American desert what the oasis is to the African. Both man and beast would often succumb from thirst and hunger were it not for the succulent cactus. By cutting off the top of a large echinocactus and forming a cup in the stump which soon fills with the juices of the plant the traveller may quench his thirst. The fruit of the opuntia will also serve for food.
The marvel is, how a plant like the cactus can offer anything in the shape of edibles or drink. It grows usually on the most barren and rocky soils, and will live longer than anything else without moisture.
From the foregoing a general idea of the Darrah collection, which in all probability will be housed in Whitworth Park, will be obtained. It is an invaluable one, and affords the best possible opportunity of making a complete study of the cacti family. Its educational value has been recognised by botanists, and it will certainly add immensely to the park attractions of the city. It only remains for the Corporation to see that the collection is housed properly, and that it is placed under the care of a man with special knowledge. To do less would be to prove themselves unworthy custodians of a great gift.
[Drawing of various cacti, including – and so entitled – ‘The giant cereus’]
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Re: Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection

Post by Tolly »

Roy Mottram wrote:It would be good to have the Cobbold notes digitised for the BCSS eLibrary, and a new biography of Cobbold published, as he was clearly the true hero of the hour and should not be forgotten. There are far too many instances of fine growers and nurserymen of the past who have not commanded the respect they deserved, while over-inflated officials and botanists with little real knowledge and hands-on experience receive a status in society far beyond their true merit.
If the notes do get digitised for the BCSS library, I wonder, might it be possible please for me to have an e-copy of them to supplement the Cobbold's archive relating to AC? (I hope I'm not being cheeky in asking).
Thank you.
Tolly
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