White, Samuel Albert (1870 - 1954)

Summary

Samuel White was a central figure in ornithology and conservation in South Australia, and a noted racehorse owner of private means. From a young age he followed in the footsteps of his ornithologist father, also Samuel (1835 - 1880), whose collections he inherited. Between 1887 and 1923 White made numerous excursions mainly through South and Central Australia, and travelling as far as Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. In 1906 he married Ethel Rosina Toms (1876 - 1926), also a keen ornithologist who accompanied him on many of his excursions. His ethnographic and natural history collections are now in South Australian Museum, and his botanical specimens (many described by J. M. Black) are in the State Herbarium of South Australia. White collaborated with G. M. Mathews on The birds of Australia (1910-27), in particular by collecting specimens for him. Mathews named a number of bird taxa after White, and the genera Ethelornis and Rosina after his wife. White was a leading exponent for the declaration of national parks in South Australia. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Flinders Chase Nature Reserve on Kangaroo Island, the first park in South Australia designated for conservation purposes. He held office as Chairman of the Native Fauna and Flora Protection Committee, as well as President of the principal South Australian ornithological organisations. White was an eminent public speaker and prolific writer on his journeys. For many years he awarded an annual medal years for best essay or notes and observations on birds by a South Australian school student. White withdrew from his ornithological and conservation activities in 1923.

Details

White's ornithological trips included: Murray River 1887, Western Australia 1888, Eyre Peninsula and north Queensland 1891, Tasmania 1906, Tweed River district of New South Wales 1907, Alice Springs 1913, the Musgrave and Everard Ranges 1914, Cooper's Creek with the South Australian Museum expedition 1916, Nullarbor Plains 1917-18, the Finke River with Edgeworth David and Walter Howchin 1921, and Adelaide to Darwin and back 1922-23.

Chronology

1900 - 1903

Military service - Served in the Boer War, attaining rank of Captain

1903

Life event - Big-game hunting expedition to Central and East Africa

1904

Career position - President, South Australian Ornithological Association

1911

Career position - President, South Australian Ornithological Association

1914

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

1914 - 1916

Career position - President, Royal Australian Ornithologists' Union

1923 - 1931

Career position - State Chief Commissioner, Boy Scouts' Association

1934

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus bicolor var. xanthophylla Blakely. White collected the type

1941 - 1954

Award - Honorary Member, South Australian Ornithologial 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

South Australian Museum Archives

• Samuel Albert White - Records, 1890 - 1954; South Australian Museum Archives. 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

Books

• Jones, Philip G., Captain White and the house of birds: the expeditions and collections of Samuel Albert White (Adelaide: South Australian Museum, 1992), 23 pp. Details
• Linn, Rob, Nature's pilgrim: the life and journeys of Captain S. A. White, naturalist, author, and conservationist (Adelaide: Government Printer, 1989), 172 pp. Details
• White, S. A., A record of the A.O.U. expedition to Eyre's Peninsula, October, 1909 : with notes on ornithology, botany and entomology (Adelaide: W. K. Thomas & Co., 1910), 56 pp. Details
• White, S. A., The Gawler Ranges: an ornithological expedition (Adelaide: W. K. Thomas, 1913), 58 pp. Details
• White, S. A., Into the dead heart: an ornithological trip through Central Australia (Adelaide: W. K. Thomas, 1914), 154 pp. Details
• White, S. A., In the far north-west: an expedition to the Musgrave and Gawler Ranges (Adelaide: W. K. Thomas & Co., 1916), 56 pp. Details
• White, S. A., In the far north-east: a scientific expedition (Adelaide: W. K. Thomas & Co., 1917), 144 pp. Details
• White, S. A., The Life of Samuel White (Adelaide: W. K. Thomas, 1920), 116 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Linn, R. W., 'White, Samuel Albert (1870-1954), ornithologist and conservationist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 472-473. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120529b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Cleland, J. B., 'Obituary: Captain S. A. White (1870 - 1954)', South Australian ornithologist, 21 (2/3) (1954), 34. Details
• Condon, H. T., 'Obituary: Samuel Albert White', Emu, 54 (1) (1954), 77-9. https://doi.org/10.1071/MU954077b. Details
• Mathews, Gregory M., 'Samuel Albert White', Austral avian record, 3 (7) (1919), 162-6. Details
• White, S. A., 'Birds recorded from the early days up to the present time for the Reed Beds District', South Australian ornithologist, 4 (4) (1919), 101-14. Details
• White, S. A. [and others], 'Scientific notes on an expedition into the interior of Australia carried out by Capt. S. A. White, M.B.O.U. from July to October 1913', Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, 37 (1913), 407-74. Details
• White, S. A. [and others], 'Scientific notes on an expedition into the north-western regions of South Australia', Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, 39 (1915), 707-842. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/93600209. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7410742. Details
• 'White, S A (1870-1954)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-576164. Details

See also

• Fagg, Murray, Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, https://anbg.gov.au/biography/white-samuel-a.html. Details
• 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
• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details