Portal:Extinction/Previous biographies

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[edit] 2006-09-30

John Gould (14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of Charles Darwin's finches was pivotal in the development of the theory of The Origin of Species.

Gould was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the son of a gardener. Shortly afterwards his father obtained a position on an estate near Guildford, Surrey, and then in 1818 became foreman in the Royal Gardens of Windsor. The young Gould started training as a gardener, and it was here that he became an expert in the art of taxidermy. In 1824 he set himself up in business in London as a taxidermist, and his skill led to him becoming the first Curator and Preserver at the museum of the Zoological Society of London in 1827.

Gould's position brought him into contact with the country's leading naturalists, and also meant that he was often the first to see new collections of birds given to the Society. In 1830 a collection of birds arrived from the Himalayas, many not previously described. Gould published these birds in A Century of Birds from the Himalayas (1830–1832). The text was by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and the illustrations were lithographed by Gould's wife Elizabeth. This work was followed by four more in the next seven years, with the text written by Gould himself, edited by his clerk Edwin Prince. Some of the illustrations were made by Edward Lear as part of his Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae in 1832. Lear however was in financial difficulty and he sold the entire set of lithographs to John Gould.