Person

May, William Lewis (1861 - 1925)

Born
18 April 1861
Wanstead, South Australia, Australia
Died
30 August 1925
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Conchologist and Shell collector

Summary

William Lewis May was trained by his parents as a naturalist and artist and by the 1890s he had accumulated a large collection of shells and conchological knowledge of Tasmania. He published two major books on Tasmanian shells and molluscs, as well as nearly 30 papers, often illustrated with his own drawings. His work greatly increased the number of species known from Tasmania. Collaborators in conchology included Ralph Tate, Tom Iredale and Charles Hedley. Joseph Verco purchased his collection of shells for the South Australian Museum.

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Details

Chronology

1895 - 1925
Award - Fellow, Royal Society of Tasmania
1902 - 1925
Award - Fellow, Linnean Society of New South Wales

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Private hands (May, B.)

  • William Lewis May - Records, 1861 - 1925; Private hands (May, B.). Details

Published resources

Books

  • May, W. L., A check-list of the Mollusca of Tasmanian Tasmania (Hobart: Government Printer, 1921), 114 pp. Details
  • May, W. L., An illustrated catalogue of Tasmanian shells (Hobart: Government Printer, 1923), 99 pp. Details
  • May, W. L.; and Macpherson, J. H., An illustrated index of Tasmanian shells (Hobart: Government Printer, 1958), 54, 18 pp. Details

Book Sections

Journal Articles

  • Macphail, M. K.; and Zeidler, W,, 'Type shells from the May collection in the South Australian Museum', The Tasmanian naturalist, 50 (1977), 1-8. Details

Resources

See also

  • Carter, H. J., 'Presidential address', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 51 (1927), i-xxix. 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

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023

EOAS ID: biogs/P001276b.htm

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