Biographical entry Howitt, Alfred William (1830 - 1908)

Summary

Alfred Howitt, a colonial public servant, undertook broad anthropological research into Aboriginal culture and society. Influenced by the evolutionary hypotheses of the era and anthropological theory, he published widely on kinship and marriage. During his field research he also collected a number of botanical specimens.

In 1861 he was asked to lead the first expedition to recover the remains of Bourke and Wills, which the party found at Coopers Creek.

Details

Events

1859

Career event - Led an expedition to discover pastoral land near Lake Eyre

1860

Career event - Led

1863 - 1889

Career position - Police Magistrate and warden of the goldfields, Gippsland

1882

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus howittiilna F. Muell. (1882) was named in Howitt's honour

1889 - 1896

Career position - Victorian Secretary of Mines

1890

Taxonomy event - Description of Eucalyptus muelleriana A.W. Howitt (1890).

1890

Taxonomy event - Described and collected the lectotype of eucalyptus muellerana Howitt (1890)

1896 - 1901

Career position - Audit Commissioner and Member of the Public Service Board, Victoria

1899

Career event - Published "The Eucalypti of Gippsland", in Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria

1904

Career event - Published The Native Tribes of South-east Australia

1904

Taxonomy event - Description of Eucalyptus neglecta Maiden (1904), Howitt was collector of the type or syntype

1929

Taxonomy event - Description of Eucalyptus paradoxa Maiden & Blakely (1929), Howitt was collector of type or syntype material

1934

Taxonomy event - Description of Eucalyptus obliqua L'Herit. Var. discocarpa Blakely (1934), Howitt was collector of type or syntype material (hybrid)

1938

Taxonomy event - Description of Eucalyptus baxteri (Benth.) Maiden & Blakely var. pedicellata Maiden & Blakely (1938), Howitt was collector of the type or 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

National Herbarium, Melbourne

• Alfred William Howitt - Records, 1879 - 1889, MSS M11; National Herbarium, Melbourne. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Alfred William Howitt - Records, 1850 - 1906; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Corris, P., Aborigines and Europeans in Western Victoria, Canberra, 1968. Details
• 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

Book Sections

• Stanner, W. E. H., 'Howitt, Alfred William (1830-1908), explorer, natural scientist and pioneer authority on Aboriginal culture and social organization', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 4, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1972, pp. 432-435. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040489b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Alfred William Howitt', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 82, no. 1, 1969, pp. 3-5. Details
• Blackburn, G., 'William Howitt and Australian Natural History', Victorian Naturalist, vol. 90, no. 6, 1973, pp. 172-173. Details
• Frazer, J. G., 'Howitt and Fison', Folk-Lore, vol. 20, 1909. Details
• Howitt, Alfred William, 'The Eucalypts of Gippsland (with plates)', Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 2, no. 1, 1890-1891, pp. 81-120. Details
• Howitt, Alfred William, 'Notes on the Occurrence of Eucalyptus Maculata in East Gippsland', Vic Naturalist, vol. 13, 1898, pp. 150-252. Details
• Howitt, Alfred William, 'On the Occurrence of Eucalyptus Pulberulenta in Victoria', Report of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, January 1898, p. 517, 522. Details
• Howitt, M. E. B., 'The Howitts in Australia', Victorian Historical Magazine, vol. 3, 1913. Details
• Maiden, J.H., 'Records of Victorian Botanists', Victorian Naturalist, vol. 25, 1908, pp. 101-117. Details
• Spencer, W. B., 'Alfred William Howitt', Victorian Naturalist, vol. 24, 1908. Details
• Vallance, T. G., 'Achievement in Isolation: A. W. Howitt, Pioneering Investigator of Metamorphism in Australia', Earth Sciences History, vol. 5, no. 1, 1986, pp. 39-49. Details
• Wardlaw, Judy, 'Alfred William Howitt: Scientific Pioneer in Colonial Victoria', Victorian Historical Journal, vol. 68, no. 1, 1997, pp. 79-83. Details
• White, Mary E. B., 'Alfred William Howitt, in Her The Howitts in Australia', Victorian Historical Magazine, vol. 3, 1913, pp. 16-24. Details

Online Resources

• 'Howitt, A W', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-485804. Details

See also

• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/scripts/smv-dynindex.php3?EID=P000507. Details