Hercules and his fig leaf

  

BGS image ID: P807851

This picture shows the fig leaf that used to be part of the statue of Hercules that is now at BGS Keyworth. The statue was installed in the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street , London in 1851. The story goes that the wife of the then Director of the Geological Survey and Museum, Archibald Geikie, objected to Hercules’s nudity. This resulted in the statue’s genitals being removed and a fig leaf being attached in 1883.


BGS image ID: P685329

The genitals were stored in a velvet-lined mahogany box for over 90 years. In 1977 the genitals were reattached and the fig leaf was put in the mahogany box. In 1982 Hercules was moved to Keyworth.
 

BGS image ID: P808617

 Andrew L Morrison