Taylor, Thomas Griffith (1880 - 1963)

Summary

Griffith Taylor was possibly Australia's leading geographer n the early years of the 20th -century. After working for several years as a physiographer with the Commonwealth Meteorological Branch, he joined the British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition under Robert Scott, as geologist. Taylor led the expedition to the west of McMurdo Sound and was responsible for the first maps and interpretation of significant areas of Antarctica. In 1920 he was appointed Associate Professor of Geography and Head of the Department at the University of Sydney. His research ranged widely over a number of topics, including the spread of human over the earth, human dominance of the physical environment and urban geography. Taylor moved overseas in 1928, discouraged that his prescient views on the capacity of Australia's resources (particularly in the north) to support a large increase in population were so poorly received. Having retired in 1951 he returned to Australia. He was a keen supporter of professional associations, taking a leading role in the establishment of the Institute of Australian Geographers and serving as its first President. The Griffith Taylor Medal, which recognises distinguished contributions to geographical thought in Australia, has been awarded by the Institute since 1989.

Details

Chronology

1892

Life event - Migrated to Australia with his family

1904

Education - BSc, University of Sydney

1904 - 1907

Career position - Teacher, Newington College

1905

Education - BEng (mining and metallurgy), University of Sydney

1907

Award - 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholarship

1909 - ?

Award - Fellow, Geological Society, London

1909

Education - BA, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge

1909 - 1910

Career position - Physiographer, Commonwealth Meteorological Branch

1910 - 1913

Career position - Geologist, British Antarctic Expedition (Terra Nova Expedition under command of Robert Scott)

1913

Award - Polar Medal (Silver)

1913

Career event - Book published Climate and Weather of Australia co-authored with E.T. Quayle and H.A. Hunt

1913 - 1963?

Award - Fellow, Royal Geographical Society

1914 - 1918

Career position - Lectured on meteorology, Commonwealth Flying School

1916

Education - DSc, University of Sydney

1917 - 1918

Career position - Lectured in physiography, University of Melbourne

1918

Award - David Syme Research Prize, University of Melbourne

1919 - 1928?

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Meteorology), Australian National Research Council

1920 - 1928

Career position - Associate Professor of Geography and Head of Department, University of Sydney

1923

Award - Livingstone Centenary Medal, American Geographical Society

1923

Career position - President, Section E (Geography and History), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1927 - 1928

Career position - Inaugural President, Geographical Society of New South Wales

1928 - 1935

Career position - Professor of Geography, University of Chicago, United States of America

1935 - 1951

Career position - Professor of Geography, University of Toronto, Canada

1940

Career position - President, Association of American Geographers

1942 - 1963?

Award - Fellow, Royal Society of Canada

1948

Award - R. M. Johnston Medal, Royal Society of Tasmania

1951

Life event - Retired to Sydney

1954 - 1963

Award - Foundation Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)

1959

Award - D.Litt., University of Sydney

1959 - 1961

Career position - Inaugural President, Institute of Australian Geographers

1960

Award - Royal Society of New South Wales Medal

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Thomas Griffith Taylor - Records, 1960, MS 041; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

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

• Thomas Griffith Taylor - Records, 1903 - 1933, Uncatalogued MSS set 460; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Thomas Griffith Taylor - Records, 1880 - 1963, MS 1003; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

University of Sydney, Archives

• Thomas Griffith Taylor - Records, 1899 - 1916, Acc 979; University of Sydney, Archives. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, Melbourne, 2012, https://www.eoas.info/exhibitions/basser/basser_browse.html. Details

Books

• Hunt, H. A., Taylor, Griffith and Quayle, E. T., Climate and weather of Australia (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1913), 93 pp. Details
• Powell, J., Griffith Taylor and "Australia unlimited": the John Murtagh Macrossan Memorial Lecture. (St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1993), 52 pp. Details
• Sanderson, Marie, Griffith Taylor: Antarctic Scientist and Pioneer Geographer (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1988), 229 pp. Details
• Strange, Carolyn and Bashford, Alison, Griffith Taylor: Visionary, Environmentalist, Explorer (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2008), 200 pp. Details
• Taylor, Griffith, Australia in its physiographic and economic aspects (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911), 256 pp. Details
• Taylor, Griffith, The climatic control of Australian production: an attempt to gauge the potential wealth of the Commonwealth (Melbourne: Bureau of Meteorology, 1915), 32 pp. Details
• Taylor, Griffith, With Scott; the silver lining (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1916), 464 pp. Details
• Taylor, Griffith, The Australian environment (especially as controlled by rainfall): a regional study of the topography, drainage, vegetation and settlement, and of the character and origin of the rains (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1918), 188 pp. Details
• Taylor, Griffith, Australian meteorology: a text-book including sections on aviation and climatology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1920), 312 pp. Details
• Taylor, Griffith, Environment and race a study of the evolution, migration, settlement and status of the races of man (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927), 354 pp. Details
• Taylor, Griffith, Antarctic adventure and research (New York, London: D. Appleton and Co., 1930), 244 pp. Details
• Taylor, T. G., Journeyman Taylor. The Education of a Scientist (London: Hale, 1958). Details
• Taylor, T. Griffith, Douglas Mawson (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1962). Details

Book Sections

• Oldroyd, David R., 'Griffith Taylor, Ernest Andrews et al: Early Ideas on the Development of the River Systems of the Sydney Region, Eastern Australia, and Subsequent Ideas on the Associated Geomorphological Problems' in History of Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology, Grapes, R. H., Oldroyd, D. R. and Grigelis, A., eds (London: Geological Society, 2008), pp. 241-77. Details
• Powell, J. M., 'Taylor, Thomas Griffith (1880-1963), geographer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 185-188. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120206b.htm. Details
• Powell, J.M., 'Thomas Griffith Taylor, 1880-1963' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Conference Papers

• Oldroyd, D. R., 'Griffith Taylor and his Views on Race, Environment and Settlement and the Peopling of Australia', in Useful and Curious Geological Enquiries Beyond the World: Pacific-Asia Historical Themes: The 19th International INHIGEO Symposium, Sydney, Australia, 4-8 July, 1994 edited by D. F. Branagan and G. H. McNally (Sydney: International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences, 1994), pp. 251-274.. Details

Edited Books

• Andrews, John ed., Frontiers and men: a volume in memory of Griffith Taylor (1880-1963) (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1966), 186 pp. Details
• Taylor, T. G. ed., Geography in the twentieth century: a study of growth, fields, techniques, aims, and trends (London: Methuen, 1950), 630 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Griffith Taylor 1880-1963', Australian Geographical Studies, II (1) (1964), 1-9. Details
• Anon, 'Griffith Taylor 1880 - 1963', Australian geographical studies, 2 (1) (1964), 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8470.1964.tb00017.x. Details
• Anon, 'Griffith Taylor: principal publications', Australian geographical studies, 2 (1) (1964), 3-9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8470.1964.tb00018.x. Details
• Bishop, Paul, 'Griffith Taylor and the SE Australian highlands: issues of data sources and testability in interpretations of long‐term drainage history and landscape evolution', Australian geographer, 29 (1) (1998), 7-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049189808703201. Details
• Bourke, Helen, 'Intellectuals for Export: Australia in the 1920's', Australian Cultural History, 3 (1984), 59-93. Details
• Browne, W. R., 'Thomas Griffith Taylor', Yearbook of the Australian Academy of Science, 1964 (1964), 41-53. Details
• Christie, N. J., '"Pioneering for a civilized world": Griffith Taylor and the ecology of geography', Scientia canadensis, 17 (1993), 103-54. Details
• Crone, G. R. and Priestley, R. E., 'Obituary; Thomas Griffith Taylor', Geographical journal, 130 (1) (1964), 189-91. Details
• Hanley, W. S., 'Griffith Taylor's Antarctic Achievements: a Geographical Foundation', Australian Geographical Studies, 18 (1) (1980), 22-36. Details
• Marshall. Ann, 'Griffith Taylor', Geographical review, 53 (1964), 427-9. Details
• Powell, J. M., 'The Bowman, Huntington and Taylor Correspondence, 1928', Australian Geographer, 14 (1978), 123-125. Details
• Powell, J. M., 'Thomas Griffith Taylor, 1888-1963', Geographers: Bibliographical Studies, 3 (1979), 141-153. Details
• Powell, J. M., 'The Cyclist on the Ice: Griffith Taylor as Explorer', Royal Geographical Society of Australia (SA Branch), Proceedings (1979), 1-28. Details
• Powell, J. M., 'Griffith Taylor and 'Australia Unlimited'', Habitat, 8 (1980), 6-8. Details
• Powell, J. M., 'National Identity and the Gifted Immigrant: a Note on T. Griffith Taylor, 1880-1963', Journal of Intercultural Studies, 2 (1981), 43-54. Details
• Powell, J. M., '1928: Griffith Taylor Emigrates from Australia', Geography Bulletin, 10 (1987), 5-13. Details
• Quilty, Patrick G., 'Laying the Foundation: Early Australian Earth Scientists in the Antarctic: Part 2 - Geologists with Scott's 1911-1912 Final Expedition', TAG: Geological Society of Australia Newsletter, 161 (2011), 21-6. Details
• Rose, J. K., 'Griffith Taylor, 1880 - 1963', Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 54 (1964), 622-9. Details
• Spate, O. H. K., 'Journeyman Taylor: some aspects of his work', Australian geographer, 12 (2) (1972), 115-22, https://doi.org/10.1080/00049187208702620. Details
• Stead, David G., 'A tribute to Professor Griffith Taylor', Australian geographer, 1 (1) (1928), 42-62, https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182808702033. Details
• Strange, Carolyn, 'The Personality of Environmental Prediction: Griffith Taylor as "Latter-Day" Prophet', Historical Records of Australian Science, 21 (2) (2010), 133-48, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR09026. Details
• Taylor, Griffith, 'The status of Australian states. a study of fundamental geographical controls', Australian geographer, 1 (1) (1928), 7-28. Details
• Taylor, T. G., 'The Lake George Senkungsfeld, a study of the evolution of Lakes George and Bathurst, New South Wales', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 32 (1907), 325-45. Details
• Taylor, T. G., 'Physiography and glacial geology of east Antarctica', Geographical journal, 44 (1914), 365-82, 452-67, 553-71. Details
• Thom, Bruce, 'Sentinels of geography: legacy, public policy and contemporary relevance', Australian geographer, 49 (2) (2018), 255-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2018.1440687. Details
• Warner, R. F., 'An intimate history of leadership: Sydney University's Department of Geography, 1921 - 1997', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 144 (2022), 255-70, https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/LIN/article/view/17116. Details
• Wood, Michael J., 'Meteorologist's profile - Thomas Griffith Taylor (1880 - 1963)', Weather, 63 (12) (2008), 361-4. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/64306461. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2569366. Details
• 'Taylor, Thomas Griffith (1880-1963)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1265174. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_t.html. Details
• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_t.html. Details
• Cooper, Barry J.; and Jago, James B., 'Early Understanding of the Cambrian in South Australia: 1839-1910', in The History of Geology in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century; the Story in Australia, and in Victoria, from Selwyn and McCoy to Gregory - 1853 to 1903 edited by Pierson, R. R. (Melbourne: Earth Sciences History Group, GSA Inc., 2007), pp. 20-5.. Details
• Currie, George; Graham, John, The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901-1926 (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1966), 203 pp, https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/origins-csiro. pages 38. Details