Person

Nicolay, Charles Grenfell (1815 - 1897)

Born
3 August 1815
Chelsea, England
Died
9 May 1897
Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
Occupation
Geologist and Geographer

Summary

Charles Nicolay was a clergyman who arrived in Western Australia in 1870 after ten years in Brazil where he was involved in various geological and geographical ventures. He was advisor to the Western Australian Government on geological matters. In 1881 he established a collection of mineral specimens in Fremantle, Western Australia's first public museum. This collection was transferred to Perth as one of the foundation collections of what became the Western Australian Museum. Nicolay arranged with the British Museum (Natural History) for the exchange of parts of the Youngedin meteorite for a collection of authenticated metallic ores of value for prospecting in Western Australia. His scientific correspondents included W. B. Clarke with whom he discussed the origins of diamonds.

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Details

Chronology

1841
Career event - Ordained Deacon in the Church of England by the Bishop of Exeter
1843 - 1858
Career position - Librarian, King's College, London
1844 - 1866
Award - Fellow, Royal Geographical Society, London
1854 - 1858
Career position - Lecturer on geography, King's College, London
1858 - 1870
Career position - Chaplain to British residents in Bahai, Brazil
1870 - 1874?
Career position - Chaplain in Geraldton, Western Australia
1892 - 1897
Career position - Member, Aborigines Protection Board

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia

  • Charles Grenfell Nicolay - Records, PR5382; JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia. Details
  • Charles Grenfell Nicolay - Records, ACC 1706A; JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia. Details
  • Charles Grenfell Nicolay - Records, 1875, ACC 12?; JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia. Details
  • Charles Grenfell Nicolay - Records, 1897, ACC 1323A; JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia. Details

Western Australian Museum

  • Charles Grenfell Nicolay - Records, 1881 - 1890; Western Australian Museum. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Glover, John; with Bevan, Jenny, The Forgotten Explorers: Pioneer geologists of Western Australia, 1826-1926 (Victoria Park, W.A.: Hesperian Press, 2010), 246 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Playford, Phillip E.; Pridmore, I., 'Nicolay, Charles Grenfell (1815-1897), clergyman, geographer and geologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 5: 1851 - 1890 K-Q, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1974), pp. 340-341. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050389b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

  • Bevan, A. W. R.; and Downes, P. J., 'Mineralogy at the Western Australian Museum', Australian Journal of Mineralogy, 6 (2) (2000), 93-100. Details
  • Downes, Peter J.; and Bevan, Alex W. R., 'The Reverend Charles Grenfell Nicolay and the diamonds of Bahia, Brazil', Earth Sciences History Group Newsletter, 43 (2012), 9-15. Details
  • Downes, Peter J.; Deacon, Geoff L.; and Bevan, Alex W. R., 'Northampton lead, Kimberley gold and the Youndegin iron meteorite: early mineral collections in Western Australia (1848 - 1887)', Earth Sciences History Group Newsletter, 44 (2013), 15-25. Details
  • Downes, Peter, McNamara, Kenneth and Bevan, Alex, 'Encounters with Charles Hartt, Louis Agassiz and the diamonds of Bahia: the geological activities of the Reverend Charles Grenfell Nicolay in Brazil, 1858-1869', Earth Sciences History, 33 (1) (2014), 10-25. Details
  • Playford, P. E.; and Pridmore, I., 'The Reverend C. G. Nicolay: a pioneer geographer, geologist, and museum curator in Western Australia', Early Days, 7 (1969), 29-33. Details
  • Playford, Phillip E.; and Pridmore, Isobel, 'The Reverend C. G. Nicolay, Western Australia's first museum curator', Records of the Western Australian Museum, 3 (1) (1974), 78-81. Details
  • Zylstra, Baige, '"Those riches of which we are so proud": Western Australian geological collecting for international and intercolonial exhibitions 1850 - 1890', Studies in Western Australian history, 35 (2020), 59-74. Details

Resources

See also

  • Downes, Peter J.; Bevan, Alex W. R.; and Deacon, Geoff, 'The Fletcher Collection of Minerals at the Western Australian Museum: a Late 19th Century Gem', Australian Journal of Mineralogy, 16 (1) (2011), 3-14. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023

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