Mathews, Gregory Macalister (1876 - 1949)

Summary

Gregory Mathews, who was born in New South Wales, came under the influence of R. Bowdler Sharpe at the British Museum in the early 1900s and thereafter endeavoured to produce an exhaustive work on Australian birds. This was published in 12 volumes as The Birds of Australia between 1910 and 1927.

Details

Chronology

Career position - Cattle Station, North Queensland, Australia

Career position - Orchadist, New South Wales

Award - Fellow, American Ornithologists Union, United States of America

Award - Fellow, Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE)

Education - The Kings School, Parramatta, Australia

1902 -

Life event - Travelled to England

1910 - 1927

Career position - Author, Birds of Australia 12 Volumes, Bibliography, checklist and two supplements.

1911 - 1923

Career position - Studied Australian Birds collecting 30,000 specimens and 5,000 books relating to them

1912 - 1927

Career position - Editor and Publisher, Australian Avian Record

1914 -

Life event - Visited Australia and the United States of America

1920s

Career event - Sold physical specimens to Lord Rothschild, now housed in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, United State of America

1935 - 1938

Career Position - Chairman, British Ornithologists' Club, Great Britain

1939 -

Award - Fellow, Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union, Australia and New Zealand

1939

Award - Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), Great Britain

1939 - 1945

Career position - Presented and supervised the housing of his Library at the National Library of Australia, Australia

1939 - 1946

Life event - Visited Australia

1946 - 1947

Career position - President, Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union, Australia and New Zealand

Related entries

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Gregory Macalister Mathews - Records, 1900 - 1949, MS 1465; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Gregory Macalister Mathews - Records, 1890 - 1949; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Mathews, G. M., The birds of Australia: bibliography of the birds of Australia: books used in the preparation of this work with a few biographical details of authors and collectors (London: H. F. & G. Witherby, 1925), 149 pp. Details
• Mathews, G. M., Birds and Books. the Story of Mathews Ornithological Library (Canberra: Verity Hewitt, 1942). Details

Book Sections

• Kloot, Tess, 'Mathews, Gregory Macalister (1876-1949), ornithologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), pp. 441-442. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100430b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Bryant, C. E., 'Gregory M. Mathews', Emu, 49 (2) (1949), 145-8. Details
• Iredale, T., 'The Work of Gregory Mathews, Ornithologist', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (1940), 31-33. Details
• Iredale, T., 'Gregory M. Mathews (1876-1949)', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1948/9 (1948), 16-20. Details
• Kinnear, N. B., 'Gregory M. Mathews, C.B.E.', Ibis, 91 (1949), 521-4. Details
• Mathews, G. M., 'G. J. Broinowski', Emu, 41 (1941). Details
• Mathews, G.M.; and Iredale, T., 'Captain Thomas Brown, Ornithologist', The Australian Avian Record, 4 (1922), 176-194. Details
• Mathews, Gregory M and Iredale, Tom, 'Thomas Watling, artist', Austral avian record, 5 (1) (1922), 22-31. Details
• Mathews, Gregory M., 'Diggles' ornithology of Australia and other works', Austral avian record, 2 (7) (1915), 137-53. Details
• Mathews, Gregory M., 'Silvester Diggles, ornithologist', Austral avian record, 3 (4) (1917), 98-108. Details
• Mathews, Gregory M., 'Alfred John North, ornithologist: an appreciation', Austral avian record, 3 (6) (1918), 129-33. Details
• Mathews, Gregory M., 'Samuel Albert White', Austral avian record, 3 (7) (1919), 162-6. Details
• Mathews, Gregory M., 'Thomas Carter', Austral avian record, 3 (7) (1919), 167-74. Details
• Mathews, Gregory M., 'John Gould: an appreciation', Emu, 38 (2) (1938), 239-40. Details
• Mathews, Gregory M.; and Iredale, Tom, ' Gould as a systematist', Emu, 38 (2) (1938), 172-5. Details
• Schodde, Richard, 'The Mathews Collection and the Birds of Australia', National Library of Australia News (2000), 3-6. Details
• Serventy, D., 'Taxonomic trends in Australian ornithology - with special reference to the work of Gregory Mathews', Emu, 49 (4) (1950), 257-67. Details
• Stone, Witmer; in conjunction with Mathews, Gregory M., 'A list of the species of Australian birds described by John Gould, with the locations of the type specimens', Austral avian record, 1 (6/7) (1913), 129-80. Details
• Walker, Rosanne, 'Gregory Macalister Mathews: Taxonomist Extraordinaire', Australasian Science, 21 (6) (2000), 46. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/34040708. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q933124. Details
• Papers of G. M. Mathews, National Library of Australia, 2003, http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/1465.html. Details
• 'Mathews, Gregory M (18760910-19490327)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-617234. Details

See also

• Davis, William E.; Boles, Walter E.; and Recher, Harry F. eds, Contributions to the history of Australasian ornithology, volume IV (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Nuttall Ornithological Club, 2018), 608 pp. Details
• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details