AMBLESIDE’S Armitt museum has marked its 100th birthday with a Beatrix Potter-themed celebration at the Linnean Society in London.
Among the highlights was an address by the actress Patricia Routledge, a patron of the Beatrix Potter Society.
Potter’s relevance to the centenary celebration lies in her connection with Armitt, which holds a collection of her work as a scientific artist.
To highlight the link, scientist Ali Murfitt dressed as Miss Potter, presented a version of the Peter Rabbit creator’s original 1897 paper.
The celebration was attended by Armitt trustees Charles Nugent, Clare Brockbank and Peter Lansberry, and the curator, Deborah Walsh.
On a video link from Scotland, the eminent mycologist Prof Roy Watling gave the background to Beatrix Potter’s findings and her detailed studies of fungi and lichens, and revealed that ‘Beatrix Potter was illustrating things that scientists didn’t realise existed until much later’.
Dressed in an outfit borrowed from Ambleside Players, Ms Murfitt, a scientist who studied with Prof Watling, presented a version of what is believed to be in the paper delivered on Potter’s behalf by a man.
Ms Murfitt later cut the birthday cake, commissioned for the Armitt by the Linnean’s executive director, Dr Elizabeth Rollinson.
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