If you ever have a chance to go to Lyme Regis - on the south coast of England - and see the Philpot museum, please do. It is a museum of fossils, but also partly about Mary Anning, the 12-year-old girl who, in 1811, discovered the first known full-sized dinosaur skeleton. She was ridiculed for her "eccentric" urge to uncover the thing, spending her time day after day on the seashore, getting grubby and wet, digging up her "Sea Dragon." Now we know it as an ichthyosaur.
This was in a time when most people still thought that fossils were "stony objects [which grew] within the earth to resemble living things." (wikipedia, History of Paleontology)
Besides, the Museum is housed in a wonderful, indescribable old residence with incredible nooks and corners, odd stairs and domes, in that lovely Georgian style. For example, look at these amazing stairs, built in front of a window:
I love fun architecture.
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