Sowerby Family, naturalists

Material, formerly held in the Western Manuscripts Department's Autograph Letters Sequence, documenting several generations of the Sowerby family, all involved in some way in natural history.

1799-1888

24 items

Purchased from: Stevens, London, December 1919 (acc.92255), March 1931 (acc.56483 and 68133), May 1931 (acc.68156 and 68158), November 1933 (acc.67474); Mrs. Barrett, London, March 1930 (acc.91327); Glendining, London, December 1931 (acc.67595), August 1934 (acc.67833), August 1935 (possibly an error for 1934) (acc.67880). Sotheby's. London; Mrs. Watson, Burnley, March 1945 (acc.72200), presumably once part of the Thomas Madden Stone autograph collection. Provenance details of no.20 not recorded (acc.67430). No accession details recorded for no.24.

The persons in this collection comprise: James Sowerby (1757-1822), naturalist and artist; his sons James De Carle Sowerby (1787-1871), naturalist and artist, George Brettingham Sowerby I (1788-1854), conchologist and artist, Charles Edward Sowerby (1795-1842), and William Sowerby (1827-1906); and two sons of George Brettingham Sowerby I, namely George Brettingham Sowerby II, F.L.S. (1812-1884), conchologist and artist, and Henry Sowerby (1825-1891), teacher and mining engineer.

For more infomation on the individuals concerned and their relationships, see the special issue of the Journal for the Bibliography of Natural History devoted to the Sowerby family (Vol.6 (6), 1974) and particularly the family tree between pp.376-377.

Database description transcribed from Richard Aspin and Christopher Hilton's typescript supplement to S.A.J Moorat's Catalogue of Western Manuscripts.