Abstract Local voluntary natural science societies played an important role in the development of early modern geotourism. This chapter explores the development of field, especially geological, excursions and their popularity in two local natural science societies – The Chester Society of Natural Science and the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club – from the 1850s to the 1950s. Both societies were established in the borderlands between England and Wales and had a strong emphasis on local and regional scientific studies. They exemplify broader trends in public engagement in the natural sciences and associated fieldwork consequent upon the British socio-political environment. Further, they draw out comparisons between the attitudes of society to excursions and scientific fieldwork, as well as involvement by social status and gender.

Abstract The role of the voluntary sector in geoconservation has a long history. However, its involvement in biodiversity conservation is even longer. A contrast is made between the biodiversity and geodiversity voluntary sectors through time. With the start of the movement arguably by the National Trust in the late nineteenth century, the baton (or hammer) has been taken up by geological societies locally and nationally, by individuals and more recently by the RIGS initiative. The word voluntary in no way diminishes the work undertaken and achieved by these people. It can be argued that without them geoconservation would not exist. This paper explores their contribution using case studies: National Trust and UKRIGS as national organizations, the RIGS movement as a local initiative, the Chester Society of Natural Science as ‘local’ interest and the work of individuals through time. The latest Local Geodiversity Action Plans (LGAPs) development as a recent historical phenomenon is explored and the importance of local as context for geoconservation illustrated.

ABSTRACT The Rutgers Geology Museum is America’s first geology museum. Rocks, fossils, and minerals had been collected into “cabinets of curiosities” since first contact between Europeans and Native Americans, and beginning in the late eighteenth century, many of these small personal cabinets were expanded, organized, and made available to the public at natural history and philosophical societies in Philadelphia and Boston. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, geology was widely recognized as an important new science that influenced the organization of collections on display at the growing number of colleges, academies, societies, lyceums, and museums that began popping up all over the United States, but it was not until 1872 that the first museum dedicated specifically to geology was built at Rutgers College. Rutgers University, known as Rutgers College until 1924, is itself one of the oldest colleges in America. Originally chartered as Queens College in the British colony of New Jersey in 1766, Rutgers, along with Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), Yale (1701), University of Pennsylvania (1740), Columbia (1754), Princeton (1755), Brown (1764), and Dartmouth College (1769), was among the nine colonial colleges founded before the American Revolution. Since its inception, the Rutgers Geology Museum’s primary mission has been to educate the public on natural history–related topics. How this was accomplished has varied greatly through the years and originated with the “cabinet” of minerals that was displayed to students, alumni, and professors in the days of Dr. Lewis Beck, the first geology professor at Rutgers College. Through the efforts of Dr. George Cook, professor and vice president of Rutgers College, Geology Hall was erected in 1872 as the permanent home for the collections, and the museum and its collections became the focal point of the natural history courses taught at the time. The many professors and curators who tended to the museum and its collections over the next half century helped shape and dictate the future of science and geology education at the university, and with the creation of the Department of Geology in 1931, the museum became a center of leading geologic research and the outlet to present the results to the community. Today, the museum strives to connect with the local K–12 and university communities to inspire the next generation of geoscientists to continue building upon the legacy that the many Rutgers University geologists worked so hard to build.

Abstract This paper explores, within a historical context, the importance of geoconservation of not only sites but also artefacts, collections and specimens as well as letters and original documents. It sets out the search and finding of sites in northeast Wales and materials thought lost then found and the subsequent nomination of Regionally Important Geological/Geomorphological Sites (RIGS) conservation status of the sites to safeguard them for the future. It is important to note that RIGS can be designated for their historical value alone, which is in contrast to Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), which are protected solely for their national scientific and research value. The role of Ethel Woods (neé Skeat) and Margaret Crosfield in developing an understanding of the geological history of northeast Wales had been lost over time. This paper contains biographical sketches of the two women, followed by their Lower Palaeozoic lithological, structural and graptolite research and places it in an historical context. This case study illustrates how female curiosity, perseverance and attention to detail unearthed previously forgotten treasures. The importance of conserving their sites, specimens and sketch field notebooks in our electronic and throw-away age is vital. The role of the North East Wales Regionally Important Geological/Geomorphological Sites (NEWRIGS) in conserving this information is put forward as an example of good practice.