Ashby, Edwin (1861 - 1941)

Summary

Edwin Ashby, an Adelaide estate agent, built up a large natural history collection, much of which he donated to the South Australian Museum in 1932. He became a world authority on recent and fossil chitons, a class of molluscs, discovering over 20 new taxa. His other absorbing interests included birds and the cultivation of Australian plants, on both of which he wrote extensively. Ashby worked for his father, a tea merchant, before visiting Australia for his health in 1884-7, ultimately migrating to South Australia in 1888. Initially he engaged in the wattle-bark industry, before he joined a cousin's firm of land and estate agents and financiers c.1890: the firm was later named Saunders and Ashby. The firm owned and largely developed much of Eden Hills. Retiring in 1914 to his property, Wittunga, in the Adelaide Hills, Ashby continued an independent business from his home, and established a bird sanctuary and a nursery for growing Australian native shrubs. (After being donated to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens in 1965, Wittunga ultimately became the Wittunga Botanic Garden.) Ashby was a prominent member of local naturalists' societies, holding office as President in several. The bird genus Ashbyia was named in his honour.

Details

Chronology

1898 - 1900

Career position - Member, Field Naturalists' Section, Royal Society of South Australia

1899

Career position - President, Field Naturalists' Section, Royal Society of South Australia

1899 - 1941

Career position - Foundation Member, South Australian Ornithological Association

1900 - 1919

Career position - Member of Council, Royal Society of South Australia

1901 - 1905

Career position - Auditor, Australian Ornithological Union1901

1901 - 1910

Career position - Foundation member, Australasian Ornithologists' Union

1903 - 1904

Career position - President, South Australian Ornithological Association

1910 - 1941

Career position - Member, Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union

1912 - 1913

Career position - President, South Australian Ornithological Association

1914

Life event - Retired

1915 - 1941

Award - Life Member, British Ornithologists' Union

1916 - 1923

Career position - Member of Council, Royal Australasian Ornithological Union

c. 1918

Career position - Corresponding Fellow, American Ornithologists' Union

1919 - 1921

Career position - Vice-President, Royal Society of South Australia

1920 - 1921

Career position - President, South Australian Ornithological Association

1922 - 1923

Career position - Vice-President, Royal Australasian Ornithological Union

1924 - 1926

Career position - President, Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union

1927 - 1928

Career position - President, South Australian Ornithological Association

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Private hands (Robertson, E.L.)

• Edwin Ashby - Records, 1861 - 1941; Private hands (Robertson, E.L.). Details

State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana

• Edwin Ashby - Records, 1934 - 1936, D 5080(L); State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Details

Published resources

Book Sections

• Robertson, Enid, 'Ashby, Edwin (1861-1941), estate agent and naturalist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), pp. 108-109. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ashby-edwin-5066. Details

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'Edwin Ashby, 1861 - 1941', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 65 (1) (1941), 1-2. Details
• Ashby, E., 'Notes on Tasmanian bird life', South Australian ornithologist, 8 (4) (1925), 107-25. Details
• Ashby, E., 'The regional distribution of Australian chitons (Polyplacophora)', Report of 17th meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science (1925), 366-93. Details
• Ashby, Edwin, 'Notes on birds observed in Western Australia, from Perth northwards to Geraldton', Emu, 20 (3) (1921), 130-7. Details
• Ashby, Edwin, 'Private collections and permits', Emu, 22 (3) (1923), 210-6. Details
• Ashby, Edwin, 'Notes on, and additions to, the chitons fauna of north-west Tasmania, together with a brief review of the genus Stenochiton', Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania (1926), 92-117. Details
• Ashby, Edwin, 'Notes on birds observed during a motor trip to the South-East of South Australia and coastal western Victoria', South Australian ornithologist, 9 (4) (1927), 131-41. Details
• Ashby, Edwin, 'Fossil chitons from Mornington, Victoria', Proceeding of the Linnean Society of London, 151 (3) (1939), 186-9, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.1939.tb00230.x. Details
• Condon, H. T., 'Obituary and bibliography of Edwin Ashby', Emu, 40 (5) (1941), 409-13, https://doi.org/10.1071/MU940409. Details
• Kloot, Tess, 'The biography behind the bird: Gibberbird Ashbyia lovensis', Australian bird watcher, 17 (6) (1998), 297-300, https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.476668689353724. Details
• Macphail, M. K.; and Zeidler, W., 'Additional type shells from Tasmania in the South Australian Museum', The Tasmanian naturalist, 52 (1978), 2-6. Details
• Paton, Penny, 'Edwin Ashby (1861-1941), Quaker, naturalist and plant enthusiast: part 1', The birder, 254 (2020), i-iv, https://resources.birdssa.au/wp-content/uploads/Historical72.pdf. Details
• Paton, Penny, 'Edwin Ashby (1861-1941), Quaker, naturalist and plant enthusiast: part 2', The birder, 255 (2020), i-iv, https://resources.birdssa.au/wp-content/uploads/Historical72.pdf. Details
• Paton, Penny 2020, 'Edwin Ashby (1861-1941), Quaker, naturalist and plant enthusiast: part 3', The birder, 256 (2020), i-iv, https://resources.birdssa.au/wp-content/uploads/The-Birder-SUMMER-2020.pdf. Details
• Winkworth, R., ' Edwin Ashby, 1861-1942', Journal of molluscan studies, 25 (1) (1942), 1-2. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2191217. Details
• 'Ashby, Edwin (1861-1941)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-627222. Details

See also

• Aroney, M. J.; Buckingham, A. D., 'Raymond James Wood Le Fèvre 1905-1986', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (3) (1988), 273-297. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9880730273. Details
• Fagg, Murray, 'Ashby, Edwin (1861 - 1941)', Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, https://anbg.gov.au/biography/ashby-edwin.html. Details
• Iredale, Tom; and Hull, A. F. Bassett, 'Monograph of the Australian Loricates (Phylum Mollusca - Order Loricata), IX: appendix C, biography and bibliography', Australian zoologist, 4 (1927), 339-59. Details
• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details