George Edwards (naturalist)
George Edwards (* April 3, 1694; † July 23, 1773 ) was an English naturalist and ornithologist, known as the "Father of British Ornithology ".
Life
Edwards was born in Stratford, Essex. After a seven-year apprenticeship with a London merchant (up to 1716), he traveled extensively to mainland Europe, studied natural history, and was known for his colored depictions of animals, especially birds. The technique of etching he had learned from the natural historian Mark Catesby. On the recommendation of Sir Hans Sloane in 1733 he beadle (English Bedell ) of the Royal College of Physicians in London. Edwards himself described as Keeper of the College Library even though it officially was no such position.
Around the year 1764 around Edwards moved back to Plaistow, where he died in 1773.
Publications
In 1743 he published the first volume of his A Natural History of Birds, whose fourth volume appeared in 1751. Three additional volumes with the titles Gleanings of Natural History, were published 1758-1764. Both works together contain more than 600 etchings and descriptions of natural history subjects.
Linnaeus took Edwards often first-time descriptions as a basis for the scientific naming of numerous species of birds. A German translation of the Natural History of Birds was printed a few years after publication of the Nuremberg Illustrator Johann Michael Seligmann.
Other Works by George Edwards are essays of Natural History (1770 ) and Elements of Fossilogy: or, An Arrangement of Fossils, Into classes, orders, genera, and species; With Their Characters. (1776 ).
Awards
Edwards was in 1750 awarded by the Royal Society for A Natural History of Birds with the Copleymedaille. The puff adder catshark Haploblepharus edwardsii was named after Edwards, who first described this type.