Robert Hunt (scientist)

Robert Hunt (6 September 1807 – 17 October 1887) was a British mineralogist, as well as an antiquarian, an amateur poet, and an early pioneer of photography.

Robert began to study in London for the medical profession, but ill-health caused him to return to settle in Cornwall.

In 1829, he published The Mount’s Bay; a descriptive poem ... and other pieces[1] but received little critical or financial success.

In 1845, he accepted the invitation of Sir Henry de la Beche to become keeper of mining records at the Museum of Economic (afterwards Practical) Geology, and when the school of mines was established in 1851 he lectured for two years on mechanical science, and afterwards for a short time on experimental physics.

[4] In 1884, he published a large volume on British Mining in which the subject was dealt with very fully from an historical as well as a practical point of view.

In it, Hunt was attempting to make it clear that science and objective discovery were subjects worthy of poetic language.