Antwerp Edgar Pratt
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Antwerp Edgar Pratt
FRGS The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
(6 March 1852 - 4 January 1924) was a Victorian naturalist, explorer, author, and renowned collector of plants, insects, and other animals.
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), ...
named for Pratt include three mammals and two reptiles. Two of his sons and a nephew were also collectors.


Biography

Pratt was born on 6 March 1852 on the
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
in England to Charles, a grocer, and Ann Pratt. He had two elder siblings, Florence and Vienna. He married Alice Mary Spanner in 1882 and they had six children, four sons and two daughters. Felix Pratt and Charles Pratt followed their father and became successful insect collectors. His other sons Henry and Joseph also made important contributions to science. He was a member of the
Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
and in 1891 he received the Gill Memorial Award for the encouragement of geographical research in early career researchers who have shown great potential. In the same year he visited
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
and China. In China his activities were treated with suspicion and notices were posted warning locals of assisting him. He made some progress by employing Chinese Christians. These employees were harassed by the locals and his German assistant had to retreat from his work. Whilst he was in
Tatsienlu Kangding ( zh, c=康定), also known as Dartsedo (), is a county-level city and the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province of Southwest China. Kangding is on the bank of the Dadu River and has been considered the histor ...
in China he met and was assisted by the French missionaries and naturalists Bishop Felix Biet and Father Jean André Soulié. In 1892 he published an account of his journey "to the snows of Tibet through China". This book is thought to show that Pratt did not actually get to Tibet but he only got close enough to meet the missionaries who had been ejected from the country. Incidentally Pratt's book is thought to be a source for the work of
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...
. He died in 1924 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, aged 71.


Expeditions

A.E. Pratt, 1906. Introduction to ''Two Years among New Guinea Cannibals''.


Benefactors

Antwerp Edgar Pratt and his sons travelled and collected specimens on behalf of a number of prominent people including the English entomologists
John Henry Leech John Henry Leech (5 December 1862 – 29 December 1900, Hurdcott House, Salisbury) was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Leech was born of John and Elizabeth (née Ashworth) Leech in Bank Hall, near Preston, ...
, Sir
George Hamilton Kenrick Sir George Hamilton Kenrick Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, FRES (29 January 1850 – 28 May 1939) was an England, English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera especially those of New Guinea. He was a prominent liberal educatio ...
and James John Joicey as well as
Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937) was a British banker, politician, zoology, zoologist, and soldier, who was a member of the Rothschild family. As a Zionist leader, he wa ...
.


Collections

Birmingham Museums Trust holds substantial natural history collections gathered by A. E. Pratt and his sons.


Species named after Pratt

* Pratt's roundleaf bat ''Hipposiderous pratti,'' 1891 *
Pratt's vole Pratt's vole (''Eothenomys chinensis''), also called the Sichuan red-backed vole, is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is endemic to Mount Emei, Sichuan, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a c ...
(Alt. the Sichuan Red-backed Vole) ''Eothenomys chinensis,'' 1891 * Pratt's crabapple '' Malus prattii'' 1895 * Pratt's snail eater '' Dipsas pratti,'' 1897Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Pratt", p. 211). * Pratt's rocket frog '' Colostethus pratti'', 1899 * '' Sphenomorphus pratti'', 1903. www.reptile-database.org. * Pratt's tree frog '' Litoria pratti'', 1911 * Green acouchi ''Myoprocta pratti,'' 1913 * Ceram bandicoot ''Rhynchomeles prattorum,'' 1920 (Named for his sons) * Buru opalescent birdwing butterfly '' Troides prattorum,'' 1922 * '' Delias pratti,'' 1922


Publications

*Pratt, A.E. (1892)
''To the Snows of Tibet through China''
London: Longmans. *Pratt, A.E. (1906)
''Two Years among New Guinea Cannibals, a Naturalists Sojourn among the Aborigines of Unexplored New Guinea''
London: Seeley & Co.


References


External links

*Joicey J, Talbot G (1924).
The Bulletin of the Hill Museum
Volume 1. 1921-1924.'' London: John Bale & Sons. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Antwerp Edgar 1852 births 1924 deaths People from the Isle of Wight English naturalists Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society