Person
Waite, Edgar Ravenswood (1866 - 1928)
- Born
- 5 May 1866
Leeds, Yorkshire, England - Died
- 19 January 1928
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia - Occupation
- Herpetologist, Ichthyologist and Museum curator
Summary
Edgar Waite was Zoologist to the Australian Museum, Sydney 1893-1905 and Curator of the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand 1906-1914. He was then appointed Director of the South Australian Museum 1914-1928. He became a world authority on fishes of the Australasian and Antarctic region and was well-regarded as a herpetologist. He participated in many scientific expeditions throughout the region, including trawling expeditions, and published extensively on the results of these journeys. Almost half of his publications, many of which were illustrated, were on fish. Among his major contributions were The fishes of South Australia (1923) and The reptiles and amphibians of South Australia (1929, edited by H. M. Hale). While in Adelaide he initiated and edited the Records of the South Australian Museum. Waite was an active participant in local scientific organisations, being Vice President of the Royal Society of South Australia at the time of his death.
Details
Chronology
- 1893 - 1905
- Career position - Assistant Curator in charge of vertebrates, Australian Museum
- 1904 - 1906
- Career position - Member of Council, Linnean Society of New South Wales
- 1914 - 1918
- Career position - Director, South Australian Institute
- 1926 - 1928
- Career position - Inaugural Member, Board of Anthropological Research
- 1926 - 1928
- Career position - Inaugural Member, Board of Anthropological Research
- 1927 - 1928
- Career position - Vice-President, Royal Society of South Australia
Related entries
Archival resources
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
South Australian Museum Archives
- Edgar Ravenswood Waite - Records, 1902 - 1918, A.D. 33; South Australian Museum Archives. Details
Published resources
Books
- Waite, Edgar R., Fishes (Adelaide: Government Printer, 1916), 100 pp. Details
Book Sections
- Glover, C. J. M., 'Waite, Edgar Ravenswood (1866-1928), zoologist and museum director' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 348-349. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120389b.htm. Details
Journal Articles
- Hale, H. M., 'Obituary and Bibliography of Mr. Edgar R. Waite', Records of the South Australian Museum, 3 (1928), 345-359. Details
- Jones, P. G., 'The life of a "museum man": Edgar Waite's diaries as an historical source', Records of the South Australian Museum, 26 (1) (1992), 73-5. Details
- Waite, Edgar R. [and others], 'Results of the South Australian Museum expedition to Strzelecki and Cooper Creeks, September and October 1916', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 41 (1917), 405-665, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/43114958. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3047481. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/73066544. Details
- 'Waite, Edgar R (1866-1928)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-626867. Details
See also
- Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
- Williams, David, Wuester, Wolfgang and Fry, Bryan Grieg, 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Australian Snake Taxonomists and a history of the Taxonomy of Australia's Venomous Snakes ', Toxicon, 48 (7) (2009), 919-930 . Details
Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023
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