Daniel Wilson (academic)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other people with the same name, see Daniel Wilson.

Sir Daniel Wilson
President of the University of Toronto
In office
1880–1892
Preceded byJohn McCaul
Succeeded byJames Loudon
Personal details
Born(1816-01-05)January 5, 1816
Edinburgh, Scotland
DiedAugust 6, 1892(1892-08-06) (aged 76)
Toronto, Ontario
Archibald Place, Edinburgh

Sir Daniel Wilson

ethnologist
and author.

Life

St Mary's Church South Leith, from a drawing by Wilson, showing the church as it was before 1836

Wilson was born at 55 Potterow

Royal High School. He was apprenticed as an engraver around 1830 then went to London,[2] and worked in the studio of J. M. W. Turner. His skills as a water-colour painter came back into play much later in his career.[3]

Wilson returned to Edinburgh in 1842, and was appointed Secretary of the

J. J. A. Worsaae, who had established the exhibition of the prehistoric material in the Danish national museum in Copenhagen in terms of the Three-age system – the succession of a Stone Age by a Bronze Age and an Iron Age. He organized the display of the Society's museum after the same chronological scheme, the first to emulate the Copenhagen museum.[3]

In 1845 he is listed as a "printseller and artist's colourman" with premises at 25 Hanover Street and living at 32 Broughton Place.[4]

In 1848 Wilson published Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time, of which the chief value lies in the numerous illustrations, done by himself[2] It was an important record of the many historic buildings that were at risk or were being lost in the rapid development of central Edinburgh.[citation needed] In 1851 he published The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland,[2] which introduced the word prehistoric into the English archaeological vocabulary[5] – he probably translated it from the Danish word "forhistorie" as used by Thomsen and Worsaae.[citation needed]

Portrait of Sir Daniel Wilson, c. 1860
Portrait of Sir Daniel Wilson, c. 1860

His final years in Edinburgh were spent at 17 Archibald Place, near George Heriot's School.[6]

In 1853 Wilson left Scotland to take up the post of Professor of History and English Literature in Toronto.[2] In addition to his teaching duties, he kept up his interests in natural history, geology, and was very interested in the ethnography of the indigenous groups that he encountered on his vacation treks. Many of his watercolour sketches of landscapes and encampments of hunter-gatherer groups are now in the Canadian national archives in Ottawa.[citation needed] His brother George Wilson had become the first director of a new national museum in Edinburgh (now the National Museums of Scotland), and Daniel Wilson actively collected ethnographic material for the museum by means of an extensive network of contacts.[citation needed] He was the author of Civilisation in the Old and the New World, and a number of other books, for example, a study on Thomas Chatterton, and Caliban, the Missing Link.[3] He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1861.[7]

In 1875 he was elected a Fellow of the

George Frederick Harvey, John Hutton Balfour, Sir Andrew Douglas Maclagan and Sir Robert Christison.[8] He served as president of the Canadian Institute (later the Royal Canadian Institute) from 1878-1881.[9]

Daniel Wilson also served as president of

Victoria College, as a "Methodist plot".[3]

In 1888 Wilson was knighted by Queen Victoria for his services to education in Canada, and in 1891 given the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh.

He died in Toronto on August 6, 1892.[2] He is buried in St. James Cemetery in Toronto.[10]

Family

His older brother was George Wilson FRSE (1818–1859).

In 1840, he married Margaret Mackay.

His sister Jessie Aitken Wilson married the biologist James Sime.

Recognition

The Sir Daniel J. Wilson Residence at the University College in University of Toronto is named in his honour.

Publications

Notes

  1. ^ edinburgh Post Office Directory 1816
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Grant 1911, p. 691.
  3. ^ a b c d Halpenny 1990.
  4. ^ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1845
  5. ISSN 2050-2729
    .
  6. ^ Edinburgh Post Office directory 1850
  7. ^ "MemberListW | American Antiquarian Society". www.americanantiquarian.org.
  8. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  9. ^ "Presidents". Royal Canadian Institute for Science.
  10. ^ "Sir Daniel Wilson (1816-1892) – Find A Grave..." www.findagrave.com.

References

Further reading

External links

Archives at
LocationUniversity of Toronto Archives & Records Management Services Edit this on Wikidata
SourceSir Daniel Wilson fonds
How to use archival material
Professional and academic associations
Preceded by
President of the Royal Society of Canada

1885–1886 		Succeeded by
Professional and academic associations
Preceded by President of the Royal Canadian Institute Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_Wilson_(academic)&oldid=1219120899"