Thomas Wright Blakiston (27 December 1832 – 15 October 1891) was an English explorer and naturalist.

Early life and career

Born in Lymington, Hampshire, Blakiston was the son of Major John Blakiston. His grandfather was Sir Matthew Blakiston, 2nd Baronet Blakiston. His mother Jane was the daughter of Reverend Thomas Wright, Rector of Market Bosworth,

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. Blakiston explored western Canada with the Palliser Expedition between 1857 and 1859. Mount Blakiston, the highest point in Waterton Lakes National Park was named for him in 1858. In 1861, he traveled up the Yangtze River in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, going further than any Westerner before him. He spent the next part of his life in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and became one of the major naturalists in that country. Blakiston was the first person to notice that animals in

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, Japan's northern island, were related to northern Asian species, whereas those on

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separa ...

to the south were related to those from

southern Asia Southern Asia may refer to: * South Asia, a geopolitical macroregion of SAARC countries * Southern Asia, a geographical subregion in Asia spanning the Iranian Plateau and the Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the phy ...

. The Tsugaru Strait between the two islands was therefore established as a

zoogeographical Zoogeography is the branch of the science of biogeography that is concerned with geographic distribution (present and past) of animal species. As a multifaceted field of study, zoogeography incorporates methods of molecular biology, genetics, mor ...

boundary, and became known as " Blakiston's Line". Blakiston collected an owl specimen in Hakodate, Japan in 1883. This was later described by Henry Seebohm and named Blakiston's fish owl. He moved to the United States in 1885.

Personal life and death

Blakiston married Ann Mary Dun in 1885. She was the daughter of James Dun and the sister of

Edwin Dun Edwin Dun (June 19, 1848 – May 15, 1931) was a rancher from Ohio who was employed as an '' o-yatoi gaikokujin'' in Hokkaidō by the Hokkaidō Development Commission (''Kaitakushi'') and advised the Japanese government on modernizing agric ...

. They had one daughter and one son. Ann Mary survived him by 46 years and died in England in March 1937. Blakiston died of pneumonia in October 1891 while in San Diego, California. He was buried at Green Lawn Cemetery in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, in his wife's family plot.

References

Bibliography

* *
Ibis Jubilee supplement 1908
1832 births 1891 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in California People from Lymington English explorers of North America Explorers of Canada English zoologists English explorers Burials at Green Lawn Cemetery (Columbus, Ohio) {{UK-zoologist-stub