Person

North, Alfred John (1855 - 1917)

Born
11 June 1855
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died
6 May 1917
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Ornithologist

Summary

Alfred North was appointed to the Australian Museum in 1886 and was given a permanent position in 1891. He was noted for his book Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania and was awarded honours by British and American ornithologists' unions.

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Details

Alfred North was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and started his career as an Apprentice Jeweller then Jeweller with Henry Young Melbourne. In 1886 Alfred North's early work at the Australian Museum involved the arrangement of the Dobroyde collection of eggs, he was then appointed temporarily to the Australian Museum in December to arrange another collection of birds' eggs and prepare a catalogue of the collections. The Catalogue was published in 1889, the same year North was appointed Assistant Curator to E. P Ramsay focusing principally on the preparation of catalogues of the Australian Birds held in the Museum. In 1891 Norths position at the Australian Museum was formalised as permanent Assistant in Ornithology which he held until 1917.

Alfred North's interest in collecting bird eggs can be traced back to his youth and alongside his work at the Australia Museum he was a founding member of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria (1880), a Corresponding Member of the American Ornithologists' Union from 1902 onwards, and a Colonial Member of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1903. Several genera, species and subspecies of birds were named after him.

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

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

  • Alfred John North - Records, 1900 - 1909, ML MSS 1173; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • Alfred John North - Records, 1919, Uncatalogued MSS SET 227; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • Baldwin Spencer - Records, 1880 - 1929, ML MSS 29; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Journal Articles

  • Mathews, Gregory M., 'Alfred John North, ornithologist: an appreciation', Austral avian record, 3 (6) (1918), 129-33. Details
  • North, Alfred J.; Keartland, G. A., 'List of birds collected by the Calvert Exploring Expedition in Western Australia', Transactions and proceedings and report of the Royal Society of South Australia, 22 (1898), 125-192. Details

Resources

See also

  • Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details

McCarthy, G.J. & Rosanne Walker

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 29 May 2018

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