Fletcher, Joseph James (1850 - 1926)

Summary

Joseph Fletcher was one of the leading scientists in New South Wales for over 40 years until his death in 1926. Joining the Linnean Society of New South Wales in 1881, he served as Secretary and Director for more than 30 years, Editor of the Society's Proceedings, and President from 1919 to 1921. Fletcher was also a zoologist and botanist who was one of the first of study the embryology of marsupials and was considered an expert on amphibians. He also studied earthworms, land planarians (flatworms) and peripatus (velvet worms). Many of his papers in the Proceedings reported his studies on these animals. Later research was on Acacia, Grevillea and mistletoes (Loranthaceae). He encouraged his fellow scientists to assemble records and specimens of reptiles and amphibians. His own collections were presented in 1923 to the Australian Museum, of which he was a Trustee. Fletcher was executor of the estate of William J. Macleay who made a substantial bequest to the Society: as executor Fletcher instrumental in establishing the Linnean Macleay Fellowships to support research in natural history, biology or geology at the University of Sydney.

Details

Chronology

1861

Life event - Moved to Australia with his family

1870

Education - BA, University of Sydney

1871 - 1876

Career position - Teacher, Wesley College, Melbourne

1876

Education - MA, University of Sydney

1879

Education - BSc, University College, London

1881

Life event - Returned to Australia

1881 - 1885

Career position - Teacher, Newington College, Sydney

1881 - 1926

Career position - Member, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1886 - 1893

Career position - Secretary, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1886 - 1919

Career position - Editor, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales

1888 -

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

1893 - 1919

Career position - Director, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1900

Career position - President, Section B (Biology), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1902

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus apiculata R.T.Baker & H.G.Sm. Fletcher was joint collector of syntype

1919 - 1921

Career position - President, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1921

Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1921 - 1924

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

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Adolph Basser Library Pictorial Collection, MS 056; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

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

• Baldwin Spencer - Records, 1880 - 1929, ML MSS 29; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• J. D. Cox - Records, 1898 - 1906, B1174; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Linnean Society of New South Wales - Records, 1826 - 1970, ML MSS 2009; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. 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

Book Sections

• Walsh, G. P., 'Fletcher, Joseph James (1850?-1926)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 525-526. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080548b.htm. Details

Edited Books

• Fletcher, J.J. ed., The Macleay Memorial Volume (Sydney: 1893). Details

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'List of papers by the late J. J. Fletcher', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 54 (5) (1929), 686-7. Details
• Fletcher, J. J., 'Catalogue of papers and works relating to the mammalian orders, Marsupialia and Monotremata', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 9 (2) (1884), 809-63. Details
• Fletcher, J. J., 'Notes on Australian earthworms, I', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (2) (1886), 523-74. Details
• Fletcher, J. J., 'On the dates of publication of the early volumes of the Society's Proceedings', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 10 (4) (1896), 533-6. Details
• Fletcher, J. J. and Hamilton, A. G., ' Notes on Australian land-planarians, with descriptions of new species', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 2 (2) (1887), 349-74. Details
• Fletcher, J. J.; edited by A. B. Walkom, 'The Society's heritage from the Macleays, part ii', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, liv (3) (1929), 185-272. Details
• Fletcher, J.J., 'On the Rise and Early Progress of our Knowledge of the Australian Fauna', Report of the eighth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 8 (1901), 69-104, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14536713. Details
• Fletcher, J.J., 'Presidential address: the Society's heritage from the Macleays', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 45 (4) (1920), 567-635. Details
• W. S. B. [ie Spencer, Walter Baldwin], 'Joseph James Fletcher', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 52 (1927), xxxiii-xliii. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6284326. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/92021133. Details
• 'Fletcher, Joseph James (1850-1926)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1470736. Details

See also

• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details