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Data(s)
- 1836 - 1887 (Produção)
Nível de descrição
Dimensão e suporte
2 boxes misc. papers
Zona do contexto
Nome do produtor
História biográfica
Born Edinburgh 1836; died Peeblesshire 1887
Alexander Dickson graduated MD from Edinburgh University in 1860, lectured in botany at the University of Aberdeen and in 1866 was appointed to the chair of botany at Dublin University, returning to Scotland as professor of botany at Glasgow until 1879. He was then appointed professor of botany at Edinburgh University (the first appointee solely to this discipline) and Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, a post he held from 1880 until his death. While in post he inherited a number of problems over integrating the Garden with the Arboretum which remained unresolved. He was regarded as an excellent research and field botanist, his studies including work on phyllotaxis, flower and embryo development and carnivorous plants. He published around 50 papers in a number of journals including the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, of which he was twice president. He died in 1887 while curling near his Peebleshire home.
Sources: Dictionary of National Biography; HR Fletcher and WH Brown ‘The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 1670-1970’; (Deni Bown, ‘4 Gardens in One’); (R. Desmond ‘Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists)
D.W.
Entidade detentora
História do arquivo
Fonte imediata de aquisição ou transferência
Zona do conteúdo e estrutura
Âmbito e conteúdo
•1 box of miscellaneous papers
•1 box of miscellaneous correspondence and lecture notes
Correspondence from Archibald Dickson (brother of Prof. Alexander Dickson, Regius Keeper 1880-87) re: his late brother's affairs dated 1889 filed with "Balfour, I Bayley" corresp. under "Dickson, Archibald".
Temporary numbering and descriptions courtesy of Marcia Rodriguez:
Box 1 of 2
• GB235 DPA/1 Papers, correspondence, drawings, and reprints. Coloured [crayon?] botanical drawings (leaf forms, sections, cellular details, etc.) by W.M.C.(?) with ms. captions (6 booklets, 14 loose sheets), summer 1885; “Histological Demonstration Drawings /Prof Dicksons Practical Class, summer 1885,” by W. E. Fothergill (?), watercolour drawings with ms. captions, 25 pp., 1885; 1 photograph copy of drawing, mounted on cardboard; typescript and ms. correspondence and papers, including a ms. extract from an address by Dickson to the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh on the necessity of vaccination, 1 p., 1881; ms. questions for botany exam, 1 p., June 1880; typescript obituary, 12 pp., 1889, published in Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh XVII, 1886–1889; typescript obituaries, 5 pp.; ms. (2 pp.) and typescript (1 p.) copy of letter from Victoria R appointing Alexander Dickson Regius Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh, 1880; copies of correspondence from William Wright Smith to Dr Cairns, 3 pp., 1946 (originals in “Smith, W. W.” correspondence); reprints of articles by Dickson: “On Abnormal Cones of Pinus Pinaster, Trans. Royal Soc. Edinburgh XXVI, 1871; “On Septa Across the Ducts in Bougainvillea glabra and Testudinaria elephantipes, Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh XIV, 1882; typescript abstracts of yearly payments, Royal Botanic Garden and Royal Arboretum, , 2 pp., 1879–1888 and 1881–1888.
• GB235 DPA/2 Articles by Dickson published in Trans Bot. Soc., 1861–1866; reprints, including “On the Development of the Flower of Pinguicula Vulgaris, L.,” Trans. Royal Soc. Edinburgh XXV, 1869, and address by Dickson to the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh in 1881,”On Some of the Relations of the Present State of the Law to Medical Science and to Public Health,” Edinburgh Medical Journal, 1882; “Syllabus of Lectures on Botany,” by Professor Dickson, University of Glasgow, 1869, 1872, 1876; “Inaugural Address, On Functional Specialisation of Individuals in Animals and Plants,” by Alexander Dickson, 1879; “Syllabus of Lectures on Botany,” by Professor Dickson, University of Edinburgh, 1880, 1882 (3 copies).
Box 2 of 2
• GB235 DPA/3 2 bound journals: ms. student notes on Dickson’s lectures.
• GB235 DPA/4 Ms. notes for the arrangement of a collection of histological specimens supplied by Dickson for the Practical Class in Botany, University of Edinburgh, summer 1885, 2 pp.; unbound notebook, “Insectivorous Plants,” drawings with ms. captions, 25 pp.; unbound notebook, botanical drawings, pencil, 15 pp., misc. ms. correspondence on botanical subjects, 1881–1887; ms. list of specimens collected during the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger by Dr A. Crosbie, R.N. and presented by [?] Evans, 1 p.
Name access points:
Dr. [Murray?] Cairns
W. E. Fothergill
William Wright Smith
Avaliação, seleção e eliminação
Incorporações
Sistema de arranjo
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Condições de acesso
Collection is open to researchers by appointment, see (right click, open link in new tab:) https://www.rbge.org.uk/science-and-conservation/library-and-archives/visiting-the-library/
Condiçoes de reprodução
Permission required from RBGE