Frederick McCoy: Difference between revisions

'''Sir Frederick McCoy''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|KCMG|FRS}} (1817 – 13<ref>Family Notices (1899, May 20). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), p. 56. Retrieved March 5, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138614934</ref> May 1899), was an Irish [[palaeontologist]], [[zoologist]], and museum administrator, active in Australia. He is noted for founding the Botanic Garden of the [[University of Melbourne]] in 1856.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://museumvictoria.com.au/caughtandcoloured/Botanist.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921091609/http://museumvictoria.com.au/caughtandcoloured/Botanist.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 September 2007|title=Botanist|access-date=30 November 2016|publisher=Museums Victoria}}</ref>

McCoy was the son of Simon McCoy and was born in [[Dublin]]; some sources have his year of birth as 1823, however 1817 is the most likely. He was educated in Dublin and at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] for the medical profession.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

McCoy's interests, however, became early centred in [[natural history]] and, especially, [[palaeontology]]. At the age of eighteen he published a ''Catalogue of Organic Remains compiled from specimens exhibited in the Rotunda at Dublin'' (1841). He assisted [[Richard John Griffith|Sir RJ Griffith]] by studying the [[fossil]]s of the [[carboniferous]] and [[silurian]] rocks of Ireland, resulting in two publication: ''A Synopsis of the Character of Carboniferous Limestone Fossils of Ireland'' (1844)<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCoy |first1=Frederick |last2=Griffith |first2=Richard |title=A synopsis of the characters of the Carboniferous limestone fossils of Ireland |date=1844 |publisher=University Press |location=Dublin |url=https://archive.org/details/synopsisofcharac00mcco}}</ref> and ''Synopsis of the Silurian Fossils of Ireland'' (1846).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCoy |first1=Frederick|title=A Synopsis of the Silurian Fossils of Ireland |date=1846 |publisher=University Press |location=Dublin |url=https://archive.org/details/mc-coy-1846-a-synopsis-of-the-silurian-fossils-of-ir}}</ref>

In 1846 [[Adam Sedgwick|Sedgwick]] secured his services, and for at least four years he devoted himself to the determination and arrangement of the fossils in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge. Sedgwick wrote of him as "an excellent naturalist, an incomparable and most philosophical palaeontologist, and one of the steadiest and quickest workmen that ever undertook the arrangement of a museum" (''Life and Letters of Sedgwick'', ii. 194). Together they prepared the important and now classic work entitled ''A Synopsis of the Classification of the British Palaeozoic Rocks, with a Systematic Description of the British Palaeozoic Fossils in the Geological Museum of the University of Cambridge''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sedgwick |first1=Adam |last2=McCoy |first2=Frederick |title=A synopsis of the classification of the British Palaeozoic rocks with a systematic description of the British Palaeozoic fossils in the geological museum of the University of Cambridge |date=1855 |publisher=John W.Parker & Son |location=London}} [https://archive.org/details/synopsisofclassi00sedg Text and descriptions]; [https://archive.org/details/synopsisofclassi02sedg Plates]</ref> Meanwhile, McCoy in 1850 had been appointed professor of geology in [[Queen's College, Belfast]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

[[File:Dangerous Snakes of Victoria poster.JPG|thumb|right|230px|In 1877, an educational poster bearing McCoy's name was published showing the "dangerous snakes of Victoria". This poster "imprinted McCoy's name into the minds of generations of Victorian schoolchildren, in association with those images of deadly serpents."<ref>{{cite web|title=Wanted: Dead or Alive|url=http://museumvictoria.com.au/caughtandcoloured/deadoralive.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921080459/http://museumvictoria.com.au/caughtandcoloured/DeadOrAlive.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 September 2007|publisher=[[Museum Victoria]]|access-date=25 November 2014}}</ref>]]

In 1854, McCoy accepted the newly founded professorship of natural science in the University of Melbourne, where he lectured for upwards of thirty years.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>Wilkinson (1996b).</ref> When McCoy began his work at the university there were few students, and for many years he took classes in chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zoology, comparative anatomy, geology and palaeontology. In endeavouring to cover so much ground it was impossible for him to keep his reading up to date in all these sciences, and he remained most distinguished as a palaeontologist.

In 1857, he took over the [[Museums Victoria|National Museum of Natural History and Geology]] in [[Melbourne]]. He convinced the [[University of Melbourne|Melbourne University]] and state Government to house the museum at the university.<ref>Wilkinson (1996a).</ref> After a new building for it was constructed, it was re-opened as the [[Museums Victoria|National Museum of Victoria]] in 1864.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biography - Sir Frederick McCoy|chapter-url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mccoy-sir-frederick-4069|website=Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Fendley|first=G.C.|chapter=McCoy, Sir Frederick (1817–1899)|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=2020-04-27}}</ref> McCoy built up significant natural history and geological collections for the museum, as well as spending a substantial sum setting up a reference library to assist the scientific research undertaken by the Museummuseum's first curators.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://museumsvictoria.com.au/collections-research/library-and-archives/|title=Library and archives|website=Museums Victoria|language=en|access-date=2020-04-23}}</ref> McCoy was in correspondence with several prominent scientists and collectors of the time, including [[John Gould]], from whom he purchased specimens, including mammals, insects, shells, and bird skins, as well as copies of Gould's scientific publications for the museum.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Fleming|first=Anthea|date=2001|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/124069#page/214/mode/1up|title=Birds, books and money: McCoy's correspondence with John Gould (1857-1876)|journal=The Victorian Naturalist|volume=118|issue=5|pages=210–218|access-date=2020-04-27}}</ref><ref name="biodiversitylibrary.org">{{list journal|date=2001|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/124069#page/241/mode/1up|journal=The Victorian Naturalist|volume=118|issue=6|access-date=2020-04-27}}</ref>

McCoy, on becoming associated with the [[Geological Survey of Victoria]] as palaeontologist, composed the volumes concerning his field as ''Prodromus of the Palaeontology of Victoria'' (1874–82).<ref>{{Cite book|author=McCoy, Frederick|date=1882|title=Geological Survey of Victoria. Prodromus of the Palæontology of Victoria; or, Figures and Descriptions of the Victorian Organic Remains. Decade VIII|volume=7|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/63413|language=en}} Melbourne and London: George Robertson. (John Ferres, Government Printer. 30 pp.)</ref> He also issued the ''Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria'' (1885–90).<ref>{{Cite book|author=McCoy, Frederick|date=1885–90|title=Natural history of Victoria. Prodromus of the zoology of Victoria; or, Figures and descriptions of the living species of all classes of the Victorian indigenous animals...|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/4821#/summary|language=en}}</ref> He was president of the [[Royal Society of Victoria]] in 1864 and vice-president in 1861 and 1870.

McCoy contributed many papers to local societies, and continued his active scientific work for fifty-eight years&nbsp;– his last contribution, "Note on a new Australian Pterygotus," was printed in the ''Geological Magazine'' for May 1899. {{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Recognition==
He was awarded the [[Murchison Medal]] of the [[Geological Society of London]] in 1879, was elected F.R.S. in 1880,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} and was one of the first to receive the Hon. D.Sc. from the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=MY887F|name=McCoy, Frederick}}</ref>

*[http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/caughtandcoloured/McCoy.aspx Caught and Coloured: Zoological Illustrations of Colonial Victoria, Museum Victoria, Melbourne Australia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060914090745/http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/caughtandcoloured/McCoy.aspx |date=14 September 2006 }}

*[http://www.brightoncemetery.com/HistoricInterments/150Names/mccoyf.htm Sir Frederick McCoy (1817/23-1899)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006151907/http://www.brightoncemetery.com/HistoricInterments/150Names/mccoyf.htm |date=6 October 2007 }} Gravesite at Brighton General Cemetery (Vic)

[[Category:PeopleScientists from County Dublin]]

[[Category:19th-century Irish scientistszoologists]]

[[Category:19th-century Australian scientistszoologists]]