Etheridge, Robert (Junior) (1847 - 1920)

Summary

Robert Etheridge was a geologist who published prolifically on Australian palaeontology and ethnology and made a considerable contribution to Australian stratigraphy. After a brief period as Assistant Field Geologist with the Geological Society of Victoria, Etheridge returned to the United Kingdom in 1871 where for 13 years he was Assistant in the Geology Department of the British Museum (Natural History). Here he worked on Australian Palaeozoic fossils including material sent by Logan Jack from Queensland. Returning to Australia in 1887 Etheridge became Palaeontologist to both the Geological Survey of New South Wales and the Australian Museum. For nearly 25 years as Curator (later Director) of the Museum he enlarged the physical accommodation and the collections, established the Department of Ethnology, and instigated the Records of the Australian Museum. His publications included The geology and palaeontology of Queensland and New South Wales (1892) with Logan Jack, and The dendroglyps or 'carved trees' of New South Wales (1918), which included drawings showing carved tree designs. Etheridge was active in both the Royal and Linnean Societies of New South Wales. The Robert Etheridge Jr Medal was established in 2015 by the Australasian Association of Palaeontologists to recognise outstanding lifetime achievement in Australasia palaeontology.

Details

Chronology

1866 - 1869

Career position - Assistant field geologist, Geological Society of Victoria

1869 - 1871

Life event - Goldmining with colleague F. A. Murray

1873 - 1874

Career position - Palaeontologist, Geological Survey of Scotland

1874 - 1887

Career position - Assistant, Geology Department, British Museum (Natural History)

1887

Life event - Returned to Australia

1887 - 1895

Career position - Palaeontologist, Geological Survey of New South Wales and Australian Museum

1888 -

Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1889 - 1894

Career position - Member of Council, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1895 - 1917

Career position - Curator, Australian Museum

1896

Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1911

Award - Mueller Medal, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1914

Career position - Vice-President, Section H (Anthropology), British Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting

1917 - 1919

Career position - Director, Australian Museum

Related entries

Archival resources

Geological Survey of South Australia

• Robert (Jnr) Etheridge - Records, 1890 - 1908; Geological Survey of South Australia. Details

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

• Robert (Jnr) Etheridge - Records, 1895 - 1904; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Henry Deane - Records, 1847 - 1933, MS 610; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Etheridge, R., Contributions to a catalogue of works, reports and papers on the anthropology, ethnology and geological history of the Australian and Tasmanian Aborigines, 3 vols (Sydney: Government Printer, 1890). Details
• Etheridge, R., A monograph of the carboniferous and Permo-carboniferous invertebrata of New South Wales, 2 vols (Sydney: N.S.W. Department of Mines, 1891-1910). Details
• Etheridge, R., A monograph of the Cretaceous invertebrate fauna of New South Wales (Sydney: N.S.W. Department of Mines and Agriculture, 1902), 98 pp. Details
• Etheridge, R.; and Jack, R. L., Catalogue of works, papers, reports, and maps on the geology, palaeontology, mineralogy, etc. of the Australian continent and Tasmania (London: Edward Stanford, 1881), 131 pp. Details
• Etheridge, Robert, The dendroglyphs or "carved trees" of New South Wales (Sydney: Department of Mines, 1918), 104 pp. Details
• Jack, Robert L.; and Etheridge, Robert, The geology and palaeontology of Queensland and New Guinea (Brisbane; London: Government Printer ; Dulau & Co., 1892), 768 pp. Details
• Wrigley, J.; and Fagg, M., Eucalypts: a Celebration (Crows Nest Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2010), 344 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Nairn, Bede; Serle, Geoffrey; Walsh, G. P., 'Etheridge, Robert, Junior (1846-1920), palaeontologist and museum director' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 436-437. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080467b.htm. Details

Conference Proceedings

• Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science edited by Liversidge, A,; and Etheridge, Robert (Sydney: Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1889), i-xxxvi, 1-659, I-XLIX pp, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/53771. Details

Journal Articles

• Dun, W.S., 'Obituary Robert Etheridge, Junior Palaeontologist, 1887 - 1895, Curator 1895 - 1917; Director and Curator, 1917 - 1910', Records of the Australian Museum, 15 (1-10) (1927). Details
• Dunn, E. J.; and Mahony, D. J., 'Biographical Sketch of the Founders of the Geological Survey of Victoria', Bulletins of The Geological Survey of Victoria, 23 (1910), 48. Details
• Etheridge, R., 'The Australian Museum. Fragments of its Early History', Records of the Australian Museum, xi, xii (1916), 67-79; 339-399. Details
• Etheridge, R., 'Obituary Notice [Edward Pierson Ramsay]', Museum Records, 11 (1917), 204-17. Details
• Etheridge, R., Jr., 'Has man a geological history in Australia?', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 2 (5) (1890), 259-66. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.18635. Details
• Turnbull, Paul, 'Australian museums, Aboriginal skeletal remains, and the imagining of human evolutionary history', Museum & society, 13 (1) (2015), 72-87. https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v13i1.318. Pages 82. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7344116. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/40887222. Details
• 'Etheridge, R (1846-1920)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-630768. Details

See also

• Basedow, Herbert, Narrative of an expedition of exploration in north-western Australia (Adelaide: W.K. Thomas & Co., Printers, 1918), 295 pp. Details
• Fagg, Murray, 'Etheridge, Robert (1847-1920)', Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/etheridge-robert.html. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
• Vallance, T. G., 'Pioneers and leaders - a record of Australian palaeontology in the nineteenth century', Alcheringa, 2 (1978), 243-50. Details