The Department's history can be traced back to 1731 when the first Woodwardian Professor of Geology was appointed, in accordance with the bequest of John Woodward. The present Department of Earth Sciences was formed by an amalgamation of the Department of Geology, Department of Geodesy and Geophysics and the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology in 1980, and has its main building on the Downing Street site, where the Sedgwick Museum is also located. Notable alumni include David Attenborough, Charles Darwin and Adam Sedgwick. The latter giant of this school is the subject of two of the 11 portraits in the department, one by Samuel Lawrence and one by T. Philips. Edward Bullard, former member of staff was painted by Ruskin Spear. The most striking portrait is the most recently acquired: Anastasia Sotiropoulos’s painting of Tjeerd Hendrik van Andel (1923–2010), Honorary Professor. The Department of Earth Sciences is not open to the public.