Delays, mud, and royal attention

In 1853, a high-profile London dinner party was held inside a life-sized mold of an iguanodon.

Research:

• Cain, Joe. “New Year’s Eve Dinner in the Iguanodon at Crystal Palace 31 December 1853.” https://profjoecain.net/dinner-iguanodon-crystal-palace-dinosaurs/
• Cain, Joe. “Top Questions About New Year’s Eve Dinner in Iguanodon at Crystal Palace.” https://profjoecain.net/top-questions-about-new-years-eve-dinner-iguanodon-crystal-palace-mould-sculpture/
• Carlson, Laura. “Episode 5: A Victorian Dinosaur Dinner.” The Feast. https://www.thefeastpodcast.org/episode-5-a-victorian-dinosaur-dinner
• Friends of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. “Dinner in the Iguanodon.” 7/21/2013. https://cpdinosaurs.org/blog/post/dinner-in-the-iguanodon
• Friends of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. “How were the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs made?” 5/13/2016. https://cpdinosaurs.org/blog/post/how-were-the-crystal-palace-dinosaurs-made
• Routledge & Co., publishers. “Routledge's guide to the Crystal Palace and park at Sydenham.” Crystal Palace. 1854. https://archive.org/details/routledgesguidet00grou/
• Geological Society of London Blog. “The First Dinosaurs’ Dinner.” 4/15/2021. https://blog.geolsoc.org.uk/2021/04/15/the-first-dinosaurs-dinner/
• Hawkins, B. Waterhouse. “On Visual Education, As Applied to Geology.” Journal of the Society of Arts. Vol. II No. 78. 5/19/1854.
• Illustrated London News. “The Crystal Palace, at Sydenham.” 1/7/1854. https://archive.org/details/sim_illustrated-london-news_1854-01-07_24_662/page/21/mode/1up
• McCarthy, Steve. “The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs: The Story of the World’s First Prehistoric Sculptures.” The Crystal Palace Foundation. 1994.
• McCarthy, Steve. "Hawkins, Benjamin Waterhouse (1807–1894), natural history artist and sculptor." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. October 08, 2009. Oxford University Press. Date of access 5 Dec. 2025, https://www-oxforddnb-com.proxy.bostonathenaeum.org/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-54370
• Osterloff, Emily. “The world's first dinosaur park: what the Victorians got right and wrong.” Natural History Museum. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/crystal-palace-dinosaurs.html
• Owen, Richard. “Geology and inhabitants of the ancient world.” Crystal Palace Company. 1854. https://archive.org/details/geologyinhabitan00owen
• Peck, Robert McCracken. "The art of bones: British artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, who sparked dinosaur mania in the nineteenth century, still influences how natural history museums represent prehistoric life today." Natural History, vol. 117, no. 10, Dec. 2008, pp. 24+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A189832561/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=f6c80589. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.
• Phillips, Samuel. “Guide to the Crystal Palace and Park.” Crystal Palace Library. 1854. https://archive.org/details/guidetocrystalpa00phil_0
• Rack, Yannic. “How a Victorian Dinosaur Park Became a Time Capsule of Early Paleontology.” Smithsonian. 8/29/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-a-victorian-dinosaur-park-became-a-time-capsule-of-early-paleontology-180982799/
• The History Press. “The Victorian dinner inside a dinosaur.” https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-victorian-dinner-inside-a-dinosaur/
• Witton, Mark and Ellinor Michel. “Crystal Palace dinosaurs: how we rediscovered five missing sculptures from the famous park.” The Conversation. 5/20/2022. https://theconversation.com/crystal-palace-dinosaurs-how-we-rediscovered-five-missing-sculptures-from-the-famous-park-182573

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