Description
During the 1930s, William Dillon Weston worked in Cambridge as a mycologist for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. His specialism was fungal diseases of plants and crops, and as part of this research he created almost one thousand watercolour paintings of examples sent to him by farmers and researchers.

The Whipple holds over 50 tiles, onto which Dillon Weston meticulously hand-pasted cut-outs of some of these paintings. He even made a coffee table which encases some of the tiles as its surface.

Dillon Weston was prolifically creative, and you can see his handmade glass models of fungi in the Main Gallery.

[2019 display label]
16/02/2022
Created by: Morgan Bell on 16/02/2022

Description
Dr. W.A.R. Dillon Weston spent all of his professional life in Cambridge.  After obtaining his degree in Natural Sciences at St. Catharine’s College, Dr. Dillon Weston gained employment as a mycologist (an expert in the study of fungi) at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.  Ministry Pathologists at that time were stationed at universities, where teaching and supervision of students were included as part of their duties.

During the 1930’s, Dillon Weston produced nearly 1,000 watercolour paintings of plants suffering from a wide variety of afflictions: mostly various fungal infections, but also pest attacks, nutrient deficiencies, and bad farming practices. These drawings were produced in connection with his position at the Ministry, which he described as forming a “link between the farm and the research station.” Farmers would send samples of afflicted crops to the Ministry, and Dillon Weston would diagnose the problem and offer solutions. This work was an example of the emerging school of “New” or “Economic” Botany, in which economically important plant diseases were studied with an eye to increasing crop yields.

Typed notes accompanying the paintings suggest that many of them were depictions of samples received by Dillon Weston at the Ministry, though it is unclear why he made them. Like his glass fungi models, also held by the Whipple (Wh.5826), the paintings may have been a hobby undertaken during bouts of insomnia.

Some of these paintings have been cut out and pasted on ceramic tiles, often with labels identifying the fungus depicted. This tile was part of a collection of Dillon Weston’s belongings that were donated to the museum in 2012.

11/09/2018
Created by: Matthew Green on 11/09/2018