Arthur Smith Woodward

Arthur Smith Woodward

Born	(1864-05-23)23 May 1864 Macclesfield, Cheshire
Died	2 September 1944(1944-09-02) (aged 80) Haywards Heath, Sussex
Nationality	English
Fields	Paleontology
Institutions	British Museum (Natural History)
Known for	Prehistoric fish research, Piltdown Man
Notable awards	Lyell Medal (1896) Clarke Medal (1914) Royal Medal (1917) Wollaston Medal (1924) Linnean Medal (1940) Fellow of the Royal Society^[1]

Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, FRS^[1] (23 May 1864 – 2 September 1944) was an English palaeontologist, known as a world expert in fossil fish. He also described the Piltdown Man fossils, which were later determined to be fraudulent. He is not related to Henry Woodward, whom he replaced as curator of the Geology Department of the British Museum of Natural History.^[2]

Biography

Woodward was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England and was educated there and at Owens College, Manchester. He joined the staff of the Department of Geology at the Natural History Museum in 1882. He became assistant Keeper of Geology in 1892, and Keeper in 1901. He was appointed Secretary of the Palaeontographical Society and in 1904, was appointed President of the Geological Society. He was elected in June 1901 a Fellow of the Royal Society ^[1]^[3]

He was the world expert on fossil fish, writing his Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (1889–1901).^[4] His travels included journeys to South America and Greece. In 1901, for the trustees of the Natural History Museum, he made excavations of fossil bones from Pikermi (near Athens).^[5] His contribution to palaeoichthyology resulted in him receiving many awards, including a Royal Medal from the Royal Society in 1917, the Lyell and Wollaston Medals of the Geological Society, the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society and the Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1914. He retired from the museum in 1924. In 1942 Woodward was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the United States National Academy of Sciences.^[6]

Woodward's reputation suffered from his involvement in the Piltdown Man hoax where he gave a name to a new species of hominid from southern England, which was ultimately discovered (after Woodward's death) to have been a forgery.^[7]

Woodward was a leading advocate of orthogenesis. He believed there was a general trend in evolution from the fossil record and speculated that the human brain might have been the product of such a trend. He discussed his views on human evolution in his book The Earliest Englishman (1948).^[8]

He married Maud Leanora Ida Seeley, the daughter of zoologist Harry Govier Seeley, in 1894.

Woodward died in Haywards Heath, Sussex in 1944 at the age of 80.^[2]

References

1 2 3 Cooper, C. F. (1945). "Arthur Smith Woodward. 1864-1944". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 5 (14): 79–112. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1945.0006.
1 2 "Arthur Smith Woodward biography". Natural History Museum, London. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
↑ "Library and Archive Catalogue". The Royal Society. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
↑ Watson, D. M. S. (1944). "Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, F.R.S.". Nature 154 (3908): 389–389. doi:10.1038/154389a0.
↑ "Woodward, Arthur Smithjournal=Who's Who," 59. 1907: 1932.
↑ "Mary Clark Thompson Medal". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
↑ Miles Russell. (2004). Piltdown Man: The Secret Life of Charles Dawson. Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-2572-2
↑ Peter J. Bowler. (1986). Theories of Human Evolution: A Century of Debate 1844-1944. The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 199-200

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Arthur Smith Woodward

The Earliest Englishman, by Sir Arthur Smith Woodward [Thinker's Library, No.127]. London: Watts & Co., 1948.
Web pages and timeline about the Piltdown forgery hosted by the British Geological Survey
An annotated select bibliography of the Piltdown forgery by David G Bate

Awards
Preceded by William Harper Twelvetrees	Clarke Medal 1914	Succeeded by William Aitcheson Haswell

Presidents of the Geological Society of London

19th century	George Bellas Greenough Henry Grey Bennet William Blake John MacCulloch George Bellas Greenough Earl Compton William Babington William Buckland John Bostock William Fitton Adam Sedgwick Roderick Murchison George Bellas Greenough Charles Lyell William Whewell William Buckland Roderick Murchison Henry Warburton Leonard Horner Henry De la Beche Charles Lyell William Hopkins Edward Forbes William Hamilton Daniel Sharpe Joseph Ellison Portlock John Phillips Leonard Horner Andrew Crombie Ramsay William Hamilton Warington Wilkinson Smyth Thomas Henry Huxley Joseph Prestwich George Douglas Campbell John Evans Peter Martin Duncan Henry Clifton Sorby Robert Etheridge John Whitaker Hulke Thomas Bonney John Wesley Judd William Blanford Archibald Geikie Wilfred Hudleston Henry Woodward Henry Hicks William Whitaker

20th century	Jethro Teall Charles Lapworth John Marr Archibald Geikie William Sollas William Watts Aubrey Strahan Arthur Smith Woodward Alfred Harker George Lamplugh Richard Oldham Albert Seward John Evans Francis Bather John Gregory Edmund Garwood Thomas Holland John Green Owen Thomas Jones Henry Hurd Swinnerton Percy Boswell Herbert Leader Hawkins William Fearnsides Arthur Trueman Herbert Harold Read Cecil Tilley Owen Thomas Jones George Lees William King Walter Campbell Smith Leonard Hawkes James Stubblefield Sydney Hollingworth Oliver Bulman Frederick Shotton Kingsley Dunham Thomas Neville George William Alexander Deer Thomas Westoll Percy Kent Wallace Pitcher Percival Allen Howel Francis Janet Watson Charles Holland Bernard Leake Derek Blundell Anthony Harris Charles Curtis R. S. J. Sparks Richard Hardman Robin Cocks

21st century	Ronald Oxburgh Mark Moody-Stuart Peter Styles Richard Fortey Lynne Frostick

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 35234047 LCCN: n87825978 ISNI: 0000 0000 8372 0804 GND: 11743745X SUDOC: 076395499 BNF: cb10648571v (data)

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