William Crawford Williamson
William Crawford Williamson (* November 24, 1816 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, † 23 June 1895 in Clapham, London ) was an English naturalist and palaeobotanist.
William's father John Williamson was originally a gardener, but was well known as a naturalist in Scarborough, who first explored the fossil-rich rocks of the Yorkshire coast with William Bean. John Williamson was a long time curator of the Natural History Museum in Scarborough ( Rotunda Museum ), and so the young William grew up in an environment in which the use of science and scientists was a normal part. He got to know William Smith, the " Father of English Geology ', as this for two years lived in the Williamson family house. Williams 's maternal grandfather was a gem cutter, and he brought the young William the art of stone cutting at. This ability came William in very handy later, when he dealt with the structure of fossil plants.
His first scientific contribution - a description of rare birds of Yorkshire - published Williamson at the early age of 16 years. 1834 was followed by an essay on the Gristhorpe - man, and the same year he introduced the Geological Society of London in his first work on Mesozoic fossils of his homeland. At this time he also assisted John Lindley and William Hutton in their work on the Fossil Flora of Great Britain.
Although Williamson had received a medical degree, he found time to continue to operate scientifically, and served three years as curator of the Museum of Natural History Society in Manchester. After finishing his studies at University College London in 1841, he returned to Manchester back in order to pursue the medical profession, and was very successful. As 1851, the Owen 's College was founded in Manchester, he got the job a professor of natural history, and taught geology, zoology and botany. Later the chair was divided into these three areas of expertise in order to distribute the load of work on several shoulders. Williamson taught until 1892 continue Botany, before he went into retirement. Shortly thereafter he moved to Clapham, where he died three years later.
Williamson's teaching was not limited to his university events, he was also a successful popular science lecturer. His scientific work which he pursued all his life despite official and professional functions with remarkable energy, extended over a wide field of topics. As a geologist, he did fundamental work in the field of distribution of Mesozoic fossils (from 1834) and the role of microscopic organisms in the development of marine sediments (1845 ). Also of fundamental value were his zoological work on the development of teeth and bones of fish (1842-1851) and present-day foraminifera, which he described in a monograph for the Ray Society in 1857. As a botanist Williamson wrote a work on the fine structure of Volvox (1852 ). However, in this area, he is best known for his research on the structure of fossil plants with which he presented the paleobotany in the UK on a scientific basis. For this reason, Williamson applies Adolphe Theodore Brongniart next to one of the founders of this field of science.
After his death, Williamson's wife gave a detailed autobiography out - Reminiscences of a Yorkshire Naturalist - that was published in 1896 in London.