A donation to the Woodford Collection, this hand-colored map includes coal deposits in the Forest of Dean, located in Gloucestershire, bordered by the Wye and Severn rivers, the site of important British mining operations in the early 19th century.
The plate above illustrates 5 separate coal basins in SW England; the one from the Forest of Dean by David Mushet is the bottom section. This cross section map includes several overlays that depict alternate geological views of the hills.
A closer view of one section of overlays:
“Section of the Strata of the Forest of Dean” by David Mushet, reprinted from the Transactions of the Geological Society of London (1824), accompanies the cross section map. Mushet was an influential industrialist and metallurgist who established an ironworks in the Forest of Dean.
Thank you to a scholar who contacted us recently with information regarding Mushet’s contribution to the plate [added 07.31/2014]. We’ve added the clarifying information to the paragraphs above. Many thanks!
The personal library of Alfred O. Woodford, head of the Pomona College Geology Department from 1915 until 1955, is the nucleus of the Woodford Collection. The Collection has continued to develop through departmental purchases, devotedly guided by Donald B. McIntyre, department chair from 1955 to 1984, and more recently, through personal donations from Pomona College alumnus, H. Stanton Hill.