NHM: Sequoia HDR

On Tuesday, Shuttersister said that I "will definitely have to show [you] more of this magnificent section"; here it the giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) cross-section in HDR! I rather enjoyed simply delivering a blip (for a change) rather than wondering what I should photograph today...
Today was busy though, and I left it rather late in the day which made the light rather poor, and I found it tricky to compose the shots whilst leaning over the handrail that leads up the middle of the stairs... For scale, the door on the right is actually the door for an old-fashioned lift (i.e. not a small door...).

The white stripes leading up the midline of the lower half of the sequoia's cross-section are actually labels describing what was going on (key historical events) in the human world when the tree laid down that ring of growth...
Some highlights
In the middle
557 - Our sequoia is a seedling.

Just above the top of the handrail (in my photograph)
800 - Charlemagne crowned Emperor at Rome
Viking raids in Europe
------------------------------------------------------(circular ring/cut in section)
850 - Earliest printed book in China

Just above the top of the gallery display boards (in my photograph)
1550 - Our sequoia is 1000 years old
William Shakespeare and Galileo born

1600 - Pilgrim Fathers settle in New England

1650 - Sir Isaac Newton discovers laws of gravity
Johann Sebastian Bach born