John Edward Gray

John Edward Gray ( born February 12, 1800, Walsall, † March 7, 1875 in London) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of George Robert Gray and described himself as a first philatelists in the world.

Life and work

Gray was born on February 12, 1800 in Walsall, the son of Samuel Frederick Gray ( 1766-1828 ). His father was a well-known pharmacologist and botanist. His family moved to London, where Gray studied medicine.

The zoologist

Gray helped his father in writing The Natural Arrangement of British Plants (1821 ). After he was boycotted by the Linnean Society of London, changed his interest from botany to zoology. He began 1824 at the Zoological Department of the British Museum, and supported John George Children catalog the collection of reptiles. In 1840 he took over the post of curator Children. John Gray was curator of the Zoology Department at the British Museum in London from 1840 to Christmas 1874. He has published several catalogs of the museum's collection, which contained a detailed treatise on animal groups and describe new species. He improved the zoological collection, which thus became one of the best in the world. In 1864 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina.

The specific epithet of Paddy Heron ( ardeola grayii ), a species of bird in the heron family, was named after him. Grays younger brother George Robert Gray (1808-1872) was also a zoologist.

The Philatelist

John Edward Gray was also interested very much for collecting stamps. He claimed of himself, to have been the first philatelist in the world. He would in fact already collected stamps before the first stamps were issued and that tax and revenue stamps of all kinds on May 6, 1840 the day of the launch of the first postage stamps worldwide in the UK, he bought several copies of these brands with the intention of to collect them.

Gray was interested in stamps of the world. In 1862 he published the first forerunner of today's stamp catalogs under the name Hand Catalogue of Postage Stamps.

Next to him also the Strasbourg booksellers Oscar Berger- Levrault is credited with the invention of the postage stamp catalog. This Stamp Catalogue the time was not meant for the public. It was only shortly thereafter appearing illustrated and highly improved version of Alfred Potiquet could be purchased in bookstores.

Works

• Catalog of Shield Reptiles (1855 and 1870 )
• The Zoological Miscellany. To Be Continued Occasionally. London: Published by Treuttel, Wurtz and Co. (1831 )