Person

Ewart, Alfred James (1872 - 1937)

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    Ewart, Alfred James Portrait
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Born
12 February 1872
Toxeth Park, Lancashire, England
Died
12 September 1937
East Malvern, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Botanist and Plant physiologist

Summary

Alfred Ewart was the first Professor of Botany, University of Melbourne 1906-1937 and until February 1921 was also the Victorian Government Botanist. Although trained in England, he published widely on Australian flora and travelled extensively throughout the country. President of the Royal Society of Victoria 1920-1921.

Details

Chronology

1894 -
Award - 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholarship
1898 - 1937
Career position - Fellow, Linnean Society, London
1900
Career event - Published First Stage Botany
1900 - 1906
Career event - Translated W. Pfeffer's three volume publication The Physiology of Plants
1902
Career event - Published New Matriculation Botany, later published as Ewart's Elementary Botany
1903
Career event - Published On the Physics and Physiology of Protoplasmic Streaming in Plants,
1906 - 1921
Career position - Victorian Government Botanist
1906 - 1937
Career position - Chair of Botany, University of Melbourne
1908 - 1937
Career position - Chairman, Forestry Examination Board, Victoria
1909
Career event - Published The Weeds, Poison Plants and Naturalized Aliens of Victoria
1909 - 1910
Career position - President, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria
1910
Taxonomy event - Ewartia named by G. Beauverd in Ewart's honour
1914
Career position - Local Secretary for Melbourne, Section K (Botany), British Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting
1917
Career event - Published The Flora of the Northern Territory, co-authored with Olive B. Davies
1919
Taxonomy event - J.H. Maiden named Eucalyptus ewartiana Maiden (1919) in Ewart's honour
1921 - c. 1927
Career position - Foundation Councillor (Botany), Australian National Research Council
1925
Career event - Published Handbook of Forest Trees for Victorian Foresters
1926
Career position - President, Section M (Botany), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
1926
Taxonomy event - Described Eucalyptus gillenii Ewart & Kerr (1926) (Blakely states = Eucalyptus morrisii R. T. Bak
1927
Career event - Elected Member (Botany and Forestry), Australian National Research Council
1930
Career event - Published Flora of Victoria

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Archival resources

Private hands (Chambers, T.C.)

  • Alfred James Ewart - Records, 1872 - 1937; Private hands (Chambers, T.C.). Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

Books

  • Ewart, A., Recording census of the Victorian flora (Melbourne: Victorian Department of Agriculture, 1908), 98 pp. Details
  • Gillbank, Linden, From System Garden to Scientific Research: The University of Melbourne's School of Botany under its First Two Professors (1906-1973) (Parkville, Vic.: School of Botany, University of Melbourne, 2010), 38 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Chambers, T. C., 'Ewart, Alfred James (1872-1937), botanist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 448-450. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080474b.htm. Details
  • Farley, Simon, 'Flora and failure: A history of plants and people on the Parkville Campus' in Dhoombak goobgoowana: a history of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne, Ross L. Jones, James Waghorne and Marcia Langton, eds (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2024), pp. 6-21. Details

Journal Articles

  • Cohn, Helen M., 'Watch Dog Over the Herbarium: Alfred Ewart, Victorian Government Botanist, 1906-1921', Historical Records of Australian Science, 16 (2) (2005), 139-167. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR05009. Details
  • Gillbank, Linden, 'The University of Melbourne Herbarium, from McCoy to MELU: a broken paper-trail', University of Melbourne Collections, 1 (2007), 20-8. Details
  • Stiles, W., 'Alfred James Ewart 1872 - 1937', Obituary notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 2 (7) (1939), 465-9. Details
  • Stiles, W., 'Alfred James Ewart 1872-1937', Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1939 (1939), 465-9. Details

Resources

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
  • Willis, J. H., 'Botanical pioneers in Victoria - I', Victorian naturalist, 66 (5) (1949), 83-9. Details
  • Willis, J. H., Botanical Pioneers in Victoria, vol. 66 ([Melbourne]: [Brown Prior Anderson], 1949), 19 pp. Details

Digital resources

Title
Ewart, Alfred James Portrait
Type
Image

Details

Gavan McCarthy

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