George Shaw (biologist)
George Shaw | |
|---|---|
MA) | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany, Zoology |
| Institutions | University of Oxford |
George Kearsley Shaw
Life
Shaw was born at
In 1791, Shaw became assistant keeper of the natural history department at the British Museum, succeeding Edward Whitaker Gray as keeper in 1806. He found that most of the items donated to the museum by Hans Sloane were in very bad condition. Medical and anatomical material was sent to the museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, but many of the stuffed animals and birds had deteriorated and had to be burnt. He was succeeded after his death by his assistant Charles Konig. Shaw's library of natural history books and some of his specimens and equipment were sold at auction by Leigh & Sotheby in London on 9 March 1814 (and two following days); a copy of the catalogue is in Cambridge University Library (shelfmark Munby.c.162(8)).
Works
Shaw published one of the first English descriptions with scientific names of several Australian animals in his "Zoology of New Holland" (1794). He was among the first scientists to examine a platypus and published the first scientific description of it in The Naturalist's Miscellany in 1799.[2]
In the field of
His other publications included:
- Musei Leveriani explicatio, anglica et Latina[4][5]', containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever (1792–96), which had been moved to be displayed at the Blackfriars Rotunda.
- General Zoology, or Systematic Natural History (16 vol.) (1809–1826) (volumes IX to XVI by James Francis Stephens) [1]
- The Naturalist's Miscellany: Or, Coloured Figures of Natural Objects; Drawn and Described Immediately From Nature (1789–1813) with Frederick Polydore Nodder (artist and engraver).[6]
The standard botanical author abbreviation G.Shaw is applied to species he described.
References
- ISBN 978-1-907807-93-0.
- doi:10.5962/p.304567.
- ^ The Reptile Database
- ^ "The Memory of a Museum Dissolved but Not Forgotten". BHL. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ Shaw, George (1792–1796). Musei Leveriani explicatio, anglica et latina.
- .
Further reading
- Mullens and Swann – A Bibliography of British Ornithology (1917)
- William T. Stearn – The Natural History Museum at South Kensington, ISBN 0-434-73600-7.
External links
- Zoologica Göttingen State and University Library Digitised The Naturalist's Miscellany and Musei Leveriani explicatio
- Museum Leverianum formatted transcript.
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