Person

Hedley, Charles (1862 - 1926)

Born
27 February 1862
Masham, Yorkshire, England
Died
14 September 1926
Mosman, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Conchologist, Malacologist, Museum curator and Shell collector

Summary

Charles Hedley was a self-taught naturalist with a keen interest in shells and coral reefs. Originally migrating first to New Zealand and then to Australia to help relieve his chronic asthma, he started oyster farming in Morton Bay, and later set up an orchard on Boyne Island. After injuring his arm, Hedley gave up his farming career and joined the Queensland Museum as a volunteer (1888). Within a year he was appointed to the Museum's staff. He joined the Australian Museum in Sydney in 1891 as a scientific assistant, later becoming Conchologist and ultimately, from 1921 to 1924, Principal Keeper of the Collections. In 1896 Hedley was the Australian Museum's representative on the Royal Society's expedition to the atoll of Funafuti, his collections from the expedition being deposited in the Museum. On resigning from the Museum in 1924 he became Scientific Director of the Great Barrier Reef Committee. Hedley was probably the first Australian to study the molluscs rather than the shells they lived in. His more than 230 papers were mostly concerned with molluscan taxonomy, where he published descriptions of 53 new genera and more than 900 new species, but he also wrote widely on ethnography, zoogeography, reef formation and geology. A feature of his work was his excellent illustrations and detailed notes he recorded on the specimens he collected. His personal library of molluscan literature was presented to the Australian Museum by his widow.

Hedley's Line was named for his recognition of the faunistic break at the Tonga Trench.

Details

Chronology

1881
Life event - Migrated to New Zealand
1882
Life event - Migrated to Australia (Queensland)
1888 - 1891
Career position - Assistant curator of molluscs, Queensland Museum in Brisbane
1889 - 1926
Award - Fellow, Linnean Society, London
1890
Career position - Collecting expedition to Papua
1891 - 1896
Career position - Scientific Assistant at the Australian Museum in Sydney
1896
Career position - Royal Society of London expedition to Funafuti Atoll in the Ellice Islands
1896 - 1907
Career position - Conchologist at the Australian Museum
1897
Career position - Collection expedition to New Caledonia
1897 - 1924
Career position - Member of Council, Linnean Society of New South Wales
1908 - 1920
Career position - Assistant Curator at the Australian Museum
1909
Career position - President, Section D (Biology), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
1909 - 1911
Career position - President, Linnean Society of New South Wales
1910 - 1911
Career position - President, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
1914
Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales
1916
Award - David Syme Research Prize, University of Melbourne
1919 -
Career position - Foundation Councillor (Anthropology), Australian National Research Council
1921 - 1924
Career position - Principal Keeper of Collections at the Australian Museum
1923 -
Career position - Vice-President, Malacological Society of London
1924
Career position - Scientific Director of the Great Barrier Reef Committee
1925
Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Australian Museum

  • Charles Hedley - Records, 1895 - 1919, Series 29; Australian Museum. Details
  • Charles Hedley - Records, Series 71; Australian Museum. Details

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

  • Baldwin Spencer - Records, 1880 - 1929, ML MSS 29; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Hedley, C., Mollusca (Sydney: Government Printer, 1916), 89 pp. Details

Book Sections

Journal Articles

  • '[Obituary: Charles Hedley]', Australian Zoologist, 4 (5) (1926), 289-290. Details
  • 'Charles Hedley, 1862-1926', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 61 (1936), 209-220. Details
  • Hedley, C., 'A list of the land snails recorded from Queensland', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 5 (1888), 45-70. Details
  • Hedley, Charles, 'The Australian Journal of Dr. W. Stimpson, Zoologist. With an Introduction by Charles Hedley', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, xlviii (1914), 140-151. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Charles Hedley's Papers Indexed', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (1956), 118-139. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Charles Hedley', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 88 (1967), 26-31. Details
  • Rodgers, K. A.; and Cantrell, Carol, 'Charles Hedley and the 1896 Royal Society expedition to Funafuti', Archives of Natural History, 15 (3) (1988), 269-280. https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/anh.1988.15.3.269. Details

Resources

See also

  • Beechey, D. L., 'Sydney's Molluscs: from Gentlemen to Malacologists' in The Natural History of Sydney, Lunney, Daniel, Hutchings, Pat A. and Hochuli, Dieter, eds (Mosman, N.S.W.: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 2010), pp. 107-24. Details
  • Prince, J. H., The first one hundred years of the Royal Zoological Society of N.S.W. 1879 - 1979 (Sydney: Royal Zoolgical Society of New South Wales, 1979), 81 pp. Details
  • Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
  • Hedley, Charles (England-Australia 1862-1926, Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches, http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/chronob/HEDL1862.htm. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

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