Biographical entry Sharpe, Richard Bowdler (1847 - 1909)

Summary

Richard Bowdler Sharpe was Assistant Keeper of the Vertebrate Section of the British Museum's Zoology Department from 1895-1909. He was also a distinguished international founding member of the Australian Ornithologists' Union. Sharpe had a particular interest in classification and phylogeny and its relation to evolution and was co-author of the series Birds of Europe and the massive Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Sharpe founded the British Ornithologists' Club in 1892 to allow for more informal discussion and regular meetings than the British Ornithologists' Union offered and edited its Bulletin for many years. He received a Doctor of Laws honoris causa (Hon LLD) from the University of Aberdeen.

Details

Events

1867 - 1872

Career position - Librarian to the Zoological Society

1872 - 1895

Career position - Senior Assistant in the Department of Zoology at the British Museum

1874 - 1898

Career position - Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum published (twenty seven volumes)

1892

Career position - Founder of the British Ornithologists' Club

1895 - 1909

Career position - Assistant Keeper of the Vertebrate Section of the Zoology Department

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Gregory Macalister Mathews - Records, 1900 - 1949, MS 1465; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Journal Articles

• Sharpe, R. B., 'Analytical Index to the Works of...J. Gould...with a Biographical Memoir and Portrait', Emu, vol. 38, 1938. Details

Online Resources

• National Library of Australia, 'Sharpe, R Bowdler', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-869962. Details

See also

• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2001, 492 pp. Details