Arthur Smith Woodward

Arthur Smith Woodward
Woodward is sitting on the right
Born	23 May 1864(1864-05-23) Macclesfield, Cheshire
Died	2 September 1944(1944-09-02) (aged 80)
Nationality	English
Fields	paleontologist
Notable awards	Fellow of the Royal Society[1]

Sir Arthur Smith Woodward FRS^[1] (23 May 1864 – 2 September 1944) was an English palaeontologist.

Biography

Woodward was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England and was educated there and at Owens College, Manchester. He joined the staff of the Department of Geology at the Natural History Museum in 1882. He became assistant Keeper of Geology in 1892, and Keeper in 1901. He was appointed Secretary of the Palaeontographical Society and in 1904, was appointed President of the Geological Society. He was elected in June 1901 a Fellow of the Royal Society ^[1][2]

He was the world expert on fossil fish, writing his Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (1889–1901).^[3] His travels included journeys to South America and Greece. In 1901, for the trustees of the Natural History Museum, he made excavations of fossil bones from Pikermi (near Athens).^[4] His contribution to palaeoichthyology resulted in him receiving many awards, including a Royal Medal from the Royal Society in 1917, the Lyell and Wollaston Medals of the Geological Society, the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society and the Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1914. He retired from the museum in 1924. In 1942 Woodward was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.^[5]

Woodward's reputation suffered from his involvement in the Piltdown Man hoax where he gave a name to a new species of hominid from southern England, which was ultimately discovered (after Woodward's death) to have been a forgery.^[6]

He married Maud Eleanora Seeley, the daughter of zoologist Harry Govier Seeley, in 1894.

References

External links

• The Natural History Museum at South Kensington - William T. Stearn ISBN 0-434-73600-7
• Sir Arthur Smith Woodward at Minnesota State University
• The Earliest Englishman, by Sir Arthur Smith Woodward [Thinker's Library, No.127]. London: Watts & Co., 1948.
• Book Os Fascinantes Caminhos da Paleontologia. Author : Antônio Isaia. Publisher Pallotti. (Portuguese)
• Book: "Cronologia Histórica de Santa Maria e do extinto município de São Martinho." 1787-1933. Vol I. Author: Romeu Beltrão, Publisher Pallotti, 1958. (Portuguese)
• Works written by or about Arthur Smith Woodward at Wikisource