Biographical entry Tate, Ralph (1840 - 1901)

Summary

Ralph Tate was the first Elder Chair of Natural Science at the University of Adelaide (1875-1901) and published widely on geology, zoology and botany. His book titled the Handbook of the Flora of Extratropical South Australia was the first of its kind and a crucial resource for future botanical studies in South Australia. Tate was a member of many national and international scientific bodies and his reputation helped persuade the South Australian Government to appoint a Government Geologist.

Details

Events

1864 - c. 1867

Career position - Assistant Curator at the museum of the Geological Society of London

1867 - 1868

Career position - Mining Prospector in central America and Venezuela

1875 -

Career position - Inaugural Elder Chair of Natural Science at the University of Adelaide

1877

Career position - Founder of the colony's first continuing scientific journal, which later became the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia

1880

Career position - Converted the Adelaide Philosophical Society into the Royal Society of South Australia

1890

Career position - Handbook of the Flora of Extratropical South Australia published

1893

Award - Clarke Memorial Medal received from the Royal Society of New South Wales

1893

Career position - President of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1894

Career position - Key member of the W. Horn expedition to the Finke River region

1934

Taxonomy event - Description of eucalyptus intertexta R. T. Bak. Var. diminuta Blakely (1934), of which Tate had collected the syntype

1937

Taxonomy event - Description of eucalyptus oxymitra Blakely (1937), of which Tate had collected the syntype

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
• Ralph Tate - Records, 1863 - 1965, MS 049; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide

• Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von Mueller - Records, 1880 - 1890, O9 M9; Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide. Details
• Ralph Tate - Records, 1889 - 1894, MSS 0016; Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Ralph Tate - Records, 1856 - 1941, ML MSS 161; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Herbarium, Melbourne

• Ralph Tate - Records, 1884 - 1892, MSS M20; National Herbarium, Melbourne. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science Exhibitions

• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Books

• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts : short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Melbourne, 1978, 101 pp. Details
• Musgrave, A., Bibliography of Australian Entomology, 1775-1930, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales., Sydney, 1932, 380 pp. Details
• Musgrave, A., Bibliography of Australian Entomology, 1775-1930, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales., Sydney, 1932, 380 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Alderman, A. R., 'Tate, Ralph (1840-1901), geologist and botanist', in Bede Nairn (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 6, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1976, pp. 243-244. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060259b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Alderman, A. R., 'The Development of Geology in South Australia: a personal view', Records of the Australian Academy of Science, vol. 1, no. 2, 1967, pp. 30-52. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9670120030.htm. Details
• Maiden, J.H., 'A Century of Botanical Endeavor in South Australia', Australasian Association for Advancement of Science, vol. xi, 1907, pp. 158-199. Details
• Tate, Ralph, 'History of the Early Years of the Royal Society of South Australia. Presidential Address.', Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, vol. 111, 1879, pp. xxxix-xliv. Details
• Tate, Ralph, 'A Century of Geological Progress. Presidential Address', Australasian Association for Advancement of Science, vol. 5, 1893, pp. 1-69. Details

Online Resources

• 'Tate, Ralph - Ms 49', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, http://www.science.org.au/basser/manuscript-collection/ms049.html. Details
• 'Tate, Ralph', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-467475. Details

See also

• Tate, Ralph (England-Australia 1840-1901), Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches, http://www.wku.edu/%7Esmithch/chronob/TATE1840.htm. Details