Person

Macleay, William John (1820 - 1891)

Born
13 June 1820
Wick, Scotland
Died
7 December 1891
Elizabeth Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Naturalist and Entomologist

Summary

Sir William John Macleay, a New South Wales pastoralist, politician and scientist, was the founder of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney and helped to found the Entomological Society of New South Wales. He wrote widely on entomology, icthyology and zoology.

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Details

Chronology

1878
Award - Elected as an Honorary Member, Adelaide Philosophical Society

Related Awards

Related Corporate Bodies

Related Events

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

  • Adolph Basser Library Pictorial Collection, MS 056; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
  • Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

The Linnean Society of New South Wales

  • William John Macleay - Records, 1860 - 1881; The Linnean Society of New South Wales. Details

Macleay Museum, University of Sydney

  • William John Macleay - Records, 1870 - 1890; Macleay Museum, University of Sydney. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

  • Linnean Society of London - Records, 1792 - 1870, FM 4/2699; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • Linnean Society of New South Wales - Records, 1826 - 1970, ML MSS 2009; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • William John Macleay - Records, 1805 - 1859, ML MSS 565; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Books

  • MacMillan, David S., A Squatter Went to Sea. The story of Sir William Macleay's New Guinea Expedition and his life in Sydney (Sydney: Currawong Publishing Co., 1957). Details
  • Musgrave, A., Bibliography of Australian entomology, 1775-1930: with biographical notes on authors and collectors (Sydney: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1932), 380 pp. Details
  • Tilbrook, Louis, The Macleay Collectors: a Working Notebook (Sydney: The Macleay Museum, 1992). Details

Book Sections

  • Brodie, Marc, 'Sir William John Macleay, 1820-1891' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
  • Fulton, G. R., 'Alexander, William Sharp, and William John Macleay: their Ornithology and Museum' in Contributions to the History of Australasian Ornithology, volume 2, Davis, William E., Recher, Harry F. and Boles, Walter E., eds (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Nuttall Ornithological Club, 2012), pp. 327-93. Details

Edited Books

  • Fletcher, J.J. ed., The Macleay Memorial Volume (Sydney: 1893). Details
  • Stanbury, Peter and Holland, Julian eds, Mr Macleay's celebrated cabinet: the history of the Macleays and their museum (Sydney: Macleay Museum, University of Sydney, 1988), 170 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Haswell, W. A., 'Presidential address', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, ns, 6 (1892), 706-22. Details
  • Horning, D. S., 'William John Macleay - Entomological Lion?', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 113 (1992), 3-14. Details
  • Macleay, W., 'Notes on zoological collections made in Torres Straits and New Guinea during the cruise of the Chevert', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 1 (1875), 36-40, https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/LIN/issue/view/458. Details
  • Macleay, William, 'The lizards of the Chevert Expedition', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 2 (1) (1877), 60-8, https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/LIN/issue/view/459. Details
  • Macleay, William [J.], 'The insects to the Fly River, New Guinea: Coleoptera', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales ser. 2, 1 (1886), 136-204. Details
  • Ville, Simon; Wright, Claire; and Philip, Jude, 'Macleay's choice: transacting the natural history trade in the nineteenth century', Journal of the history of biology, 53 (3) (2020), 345-75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-2020-09610-9. Details

Resources

See also

  • Fulton, Graham R., 'Notes on the mammals collected on the Chevert Expedition, to New Guinea, in 1875', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 140 (2018), 1-6. http://escholarship.library.usyd.edu.au/journals/index.php/LIN. Details
  • Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
  • Van Steenis-Kruseman, M. J., Malaysian plant collectors and collections: being a cyclopaedia of botanical exploration in Malaysia and a guide to the concerned literature up to the year 1950 (Djakarta: Noordhoff-Kolff NV, 1950), clii, 639 pp. Details
  • Windshuttle, Elizabeth, Taste and science : the women of the Macleay family, 1790-1850 ( Glebe, N.S.W.: Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, 1988), 96 pp. Details

McCarthy, G.J.

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 13 February 2018

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