George Kearsley Shaw (10 December 1751 – 22 July 1813) was an English

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

Life

Shaw was born at Bierton,

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, and was educated at

Magdalen Hall, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colle ...

, receiving his M.A. in 1772. He took up the profession of medical practitioner. In 1786, he became the assistant lecturer in botany at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. He became a fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1789. In 1791, Shaw became assistant keeper of the natural history department at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, succeeding

Edward Whitaker Gray Edward Whitaker Gray (21 March 1748 – 27 December 1806), English botanist and secretary to the Royal Society, was uncle of Samuel Frederick Gray, author of ''The Practical Chemist.'' Educational and professional roles While attending the C ...

as keeper in 1806. He found that most of the items donated to the museum by

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector. He had a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British ...

were in very bad condition. Medical and anatomical material was sent to the museum at the

Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations ...

, 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 The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...

and published the first scientific description of it in ''The Naturalist's Miscellany'' in 1799. In the field of

herpetology Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...

, he described numerous new species of

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

and

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

. His other publications included: *''Musei Leveriani explicatio, anglica et Latina''', 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 The Blackfriars Rotunda was a building in Southwark, near the southern end of Blackfriars Bridge across the River Thames in London, that existed from 1787 to 1958 in various forms. It initially housed the collection of the Leverian Museum after i ...

. *''General Zoology, or Systematic Natural History'' (16 vol.) (1809–1826) (volumes IX to XVI by

James Francis Stephens James Francis Stephens (16 September 1792 – 22 December 1852) was an England, English entomologist and naturalist. He is known for his 12 volume ''Illustrations of British Entomology'' (1846) and the ''Manual of British Beetles'' (1839). ...

*''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). The standard botanical author abbreviation G.Shaw is applied to

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

he described.

References

External links

Zoologica
Göttingen State and University Library Digitised ''The Naturalist's Miscellany'' and ''Musei Leveriani explicatio''
Museum Leverianum
formatted transcript. 1751 births 1813 deaths 18th-century British botanists English zoologists British mammalogists Botanists with author abbreviations Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Alumni of Magdalen Hall, Oxford Employees of the British Museum 19th-century English botanists English ornithologists {{UK-zoologist-stub

Life

Works

References

Further reading

External links