Sir archibald geikie biography templates

1855

In February, Geikie was seized with violent attack from ulceration of the throat that kept him from further studies until April. He never caught up but his scholarship was recognised and acknowledged by his tutors. Apparently, a family financial crisis then occurred that year and forced him to end his studies later. Recent research has shown this to be false. A son of the family, William Geikie (1837-1859) was responsible for a stabbing incident in Princes St, Edinburgh on the 24th April 1855 and the victim was a journey-man upholster named George Boswell, who later recovered. Thus, Geikie did not return to the university in October and sought advice from his principal mentor George Wilson.

Two letters were shown to Geikie’s father around May. One from Sir Roderick Murchison, (1792-1871), geologist and Director of the Geological Survey to Hugh Miller enquired if Miller knew of a suitably qualified young man to be appointed to a field post in the Geological Survey. Another was Miller’s reply. It contained a good recommendation for Geikie and a reference to his earlier geological work in Skye. An interview was quickly arranged at Murchison’s hotel in Edinburgh with Andrew Crombie Ramsay, (1871-1881), geologist. Geikie was accepted without Civil Service formalities aged 20.

Geikie then set off on another expedition to Skye and spent a further 6 weeks in the area including the island of Scalpay for the first time. This was published as [Remarks accompanying an] “Exhibition of a collection of Liassic fossils from Pabba and Skye” in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal.

Geikie started his geological career on 19th October 1855 as a geological field assistant and began work in the Haddington district east of Edinburgh with a Mr H.H. Howell, (1872-1898), a coalfield geologist.

Murchison Professor of Geology, 1870-1881

Occupation, Sphere of Activity

Sir Archibald Geikie was born at Edinburgh in 1835, the son of John Stuart Geikie, businessman, and composer, and Isabella Thom. He married Alice Gabrielle Pignatel in 1871. His education was at Black's school, then Edinburgh High School and he showed a great aptitude for study and his interest in science was furthered in the direction of geology when he and his friends discovered fossils at Burdiehouse quarries. Geikie was influenced by scientists such as naturalist John Fleming, to whom he was introduced by his father, and by the many books on geolgy which he consumed, most notably Hugh Miller's Old Red Sandstone.

Geikie's professional life began initially in banking, which he did not enjoy and 1851 saw his a newspaper publication of his Three Weeks in Arran by a Young Geologist, which led to an introduction to Hugh Miller. He also became acquainted with publisher Alexander Macmillan, geologist James David Forbes and Andrew Crombie Ramsay.

The banking career abandoned, he matriculated at the University of Edinburgh in 1854 but had to leave the following year for financial reasons. A recommendation by both Miller and Ramsay to Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, newly appointed head of the Geological Survey, secured Geikie a position there as mapping assistant. The following years saw him make the acquaintance of distinguished scientists such as Leonard Horner and Sir Charles Lyell.

His official work was supplemented by research during his holiday time, travelling throughout the British Isles and Europe. 1867 saw him appointed director of the newly created branch, the Scottish Geological Survey. When Murchison founded the chair of geology in 1870 at the University of Edinburgh, Geikie was his choice as professor and he was appointed the following year.

Geikie's field and research work took him all over the

Title: Photographic portrait of Sir Archibald Geikie

Creator: Unknown

Description: Photo of Sir Archibald Geikie. Elected a Fellow of the Society on 23 March 1859 (no.1886), and twice served as President between 1890-1892 and 1906-1907. Awarded the Murchison Medal in 1881 for his contribution to the understanding of Scottish geology, and the Wollaston Medal in 1895 for his services to geology.

Edinburgh-born Archibald Geikie’s professional life initially began in banking, which he did not enjoy. In 1851 he published ‘Three Weeks in Arran by a Young Geologist’, which led to an introduction to the first geologist-journalist Hugh Miller. He also came to know publisher Alexander Macmillan, geologist James David Forbes and Andrew Crombie Ramsay. Geikie matriculated at the University of Edinburgh in 1854, but had to leave the following year for financial reasons. A recommendation by both Miller and Ramsay to Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, saw Geikie given a position at the Geological Survey as mapping assistant.

In 1867 he was appointed Director of the Scottish Geological Survey and when Murchison founded the chair of geology at Edinburgh in 1870, Geikie was appointed the following year. Geikie’s field and research work took him all over the British Isles and to many parts of Europe. He successfully combined his duties to both posts with private research and writing. Geikie wrote several well-known popular biographical works including ‘Memoirs of Sir Roderick Impey Murchison’ (1875), ‘Andrew Crombie Ramsay’ (1895), ‘Edward Forbes’ (1861) and ‘Founders of Geology’ (1897). In 1924 he published his autobiography.

Date: [1900s-1910s]

Format: Photograph

Archive reference: GSL/POR/50/21-1

Image reference: 01-07

Recommended print size: Up to 10 x 8 inches (25 x 14cm)

Scottish geologist and writer

Sir Archibald GeikieOM KCB FRS FRSE (28 December 1835 – 10 November 1924) was a Scottish geologist and writer.

Early life

Geikie was born in Edinburgh in 1835, the eldest son of Isabella Thom and her husband James Stuart Geikie, a musician and music critic. The elder brother of James Geikie, he was educated at Edinburgh High School and University of Edinburgh.

Career

In 1855 Geikie was appointed an assistant with the British Geological Survey. Among his early publications for a popular audience was The Story of a Boulder; or, Gleanings from the Note-Book of a Geologist (1858). His ability at once attracted the notice of his chief, Sir Roderick Murchison, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, and whose biographer he subsequently became.

Geikie completed some early geological mapping with Murchison on complicated regions of schists in the Scottish Highlands; and they jointly published a new geological map of Scotland in 1862. Geikie completed a larger map in 1892. In 1863 he published an important essay "On the Phenomena of the Glacial Drift of Scotland", in Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow, in which the effects of ice action in that country were for the first time clearly and connectedly delineated.

In 1865 Geikie's Scenery of Scotland (3rd edition, 1901) was published, which was, he claimed, the first attempt to elucidate in some detail the history of the topography of a country. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. At this time the Edinburgh school of geologists, prominent among them Sir Andrew Ramsay, with his Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain were maintaining the supreme importance of denudation in the configuration of land surfaces, and particularly the erosion of valleys by the action of running water. Geikie's book, based o