Cooke Gallery

A discussion on the Piltdown skull by John Cooke

Portrait group of well-known British scientists examining the Piltdown skull. This topical painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915, while debate continued as to whether the bones represented the missing link between man and ape. From left to right in the front row: Professor A.S Underwood, Professor Arthur Keith, Mr. W. P Pycraft and Sir E. Ray Lankester. In the back row can be seen Mr . F.O Barlow, Professor Elliot Smith, Mr. Charles Dawson and Dr. A. Smith Woodward. The Piltdown man was found to be an elaborate hoax in the early 1950s. Date: 1915

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Maskelyne and Cookes Mysteries - The Artists Dream

Promotional postcard for Maskelyne and Cooke's The Artists Dream. John Nevil Maskelyne and George Cooke, presented for the first time to a West End audience an entertainment they had been giving for several years in the province and at the Crystal Palace with considerable success. Maskelyne's invention of the door lock for London toilets required the insertion of a penny coin to operate it, leading to the euphemism to "spend a penny". With John Algernon Clarke, Maskelyne invented "Psycho", the famous whist-playing automaton. At London's Egyptian Hall, Psycho appeared in more than 4000 performances Date: circa 1880

© The Michael Diamond Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

Masked mushroom, Agaricus personatus 1, variable

Masked mushroom, Agaricus personatus 1, variable mushroom 2 and amethyst clavaria 3. . Masked mushroom, Agaricus personatus 1, variable mushroom, Russula heterophylla 2, and amethyst clavaria, Clavaria amethystina 3. Chromolithograph of an illustration by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke from A Plain and Easy Account of British Fungi, Robert Hardwicke, London 1862. Cooke (1825-1914) was an English botanist and mycologist who worked at the India Museum and the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew

© Florilegius / Mary Evans