Accession No

5911


Brief Description

vanity fair print of Roderick Murchison, November 26th, 1870


Origin

England


Maker

published by Vanity Fair


Class

prints


Earliest Date

1870


Latest Date

1870


Inscription Date

1870


Material

paper


Dimensions

width 245mm; length 368mm


Special Collection


Provenance

Purchased on or before 13/05/2003.


Inscription

VANITY FAIR
MEN OF THE DAY No. 14
“A Faithful Friend, an eminent Savant, and the best of possible Presidents..”


Description Notes

colour print from vanity fair of Roderick Impey Murchison (1792 - 1871), a Scottish geologist.


References


Events

Description
Roderick Impey Murchison (1792 - 1871), was a Scottish geologist. Born in Ross-shire, Murchison entered the army at age 15 and served under the Duke of Wellington in the Napoleonic wars.

In 1839, following research in Wales and England, he published The Silurian System , in which he named the Silurian period (about 443 to 417 million years ago). Murchison made numerous field expeditions, and his trips to Russia (1840 - 1844/5), at the personal request of Czar Nicholas, led to his definition of another world system: the Permian. He was often accompanied on these trips by notable geologists such as Adam Sedgewick and Charles Lyell. It was in collaboration with Sedgewick that he named the Devonian period.

He was knighted in 1846, and in 1855 he became director-general of the UK Geological Survey. For many years he was the president of the Royal Geographical Society. He was a prodigious author, publishing over 120 papers and books. The Murchison Falls (Uganda) and the Murchison River (Australia) are named after him.
13/05/2003
Created by: Boris Jardine on 13/05/2003


FM:46369

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