April 03, 2011 <Back to Index>
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George Edwards (3 April 1694 – 23 July 1773) was an English naturalist and ornithologist, known as the "father of British ornithology". Edwards was born at Stratford, Essex. In his early years he travelled
extensively through mainland Europe, studying natural
history, and gained some
reputation for his coloured drawings of animals, especially birds. In 1733, on the recommendation of Sir Hans
Sloane, he was appointed
librarian to the Royal
College of Physicians in London. In
1743 he published the first volume of his A Natural History of
Uncommon Birds, the fourth volume of which appeared in 1751, and
three supplementary volumes, under the title Gleanings of Natural
History,
were issued in 1758, 1760 and 1764. The two works contain engravings
and descriptions of more than 600 subjects in natural history not
before described or delineated. He likewise added a general index in French and English,
which was afterwards supplied with Linnaean names by Linnaeus himself, with whom he
frequently corresponded. About
1764 he retired to Plaistow, Essex, where he later died. He also wrote Essays of Natural History (1770) and Elements of Fossilogy (1776). |