The study of natural sciences, particularly geology and botany, were critical to Ruskin’s thinking. The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection contains scientific drawings and paintings by Ruskin and a number of his contemporaries, including detailed manuscript drawings of geological strata. These works demonstrate Ruskin’s life-long view that close observation of the natural world underpinned all thinking.

John Ruskin, Flora of Chamonix

John Ruskin, Diary Notebook 1861-1863

John Ruskin, Shell: A spiral