Bust of Hugh Falconer (1808-1865)
 |
|
Plaster portrait bust of Hugh Falconer, by Timothy Butler, [?1866]. (GSL/POR/66)
Provenance: Presented to the Society by W J Lewis Abbot on behalf of Miss Milne, 15 June 1920.
|
Hugh Falconer (1808-1865), born in Forres, Moray, was one of the leading geologists of his day and numbered Charles Darwin amongst his friends. He became well known for his work on the Siwalik Hills, a mountain range of the outer Himalayas. He wrote widely on natural history, but fossils were his later passion and in pursuit of it he visited almost every collection in England, France, Italy and Germany.
The bust may be the artist’s study for a marble version commissioned by the Royal Society which was exhibited at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition of 1866.
Falconer was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society on 23 February 1842, serving on the Society’s Council between 1844-1848, 1857-1860 and 1862-1865. During the latter period he was also Foreign Secretary. Jointly awarded the fourth Wollaston Medal with Captain Proby Cautley for work on the Tertiary succession and fossil fauna of the Siwalik Hills, India, in 1837.
Joseph Hooker, the botanist, named Rhododendron falconeri for him.
|
|
Carte de visite photographic portrait of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, by Maull & Fox, [1877-1890]. (GSL/POR/45/03-04)
|