Sir John William Dawson

Sir John William Dawson, known best as "William", was born in 1820 in Pictou, Nova Scotia and raised Presbyterian. He and his family were in fellowship with the PB in the earliest days at Natural History Hall. 

He was appointed Nova Scotia's first superintendent of education (1850-1853). Then from 1855-1893, he served as principal of McGill University. He is credited in Encyclopedia Britannica for transforming McGill from "an understaffed, insignificant school into a progressive university with a worldwide reputation." He averaged writing ten scientific papers a year, and helped found the Montreal Normal School, serving as its principal for thirteen years.

He made numerous contributions to paleobotany and Canadian geology, including discovering the earliest (in 1859) known land plant, Psilophyton, in the Devonian strata (dating 360-408 million years ago).

He died in 1899 in Montreal, Quebec.

Contents

Education

He earned his M.A. and LL.D. at Edinburgh University in 1856 and 1884, respectively. He also earned a LL.D. at McGill in 1857, and a D.C.L. at Bishop's College in 1881.

Marriage

In 1847, John married Margaret Ann Young Mercer (b. 1823 Scotland) at Saint Cuthberts in Edinburgh, Scotland. They had several children:

• Dr. George Mercer Dawson (b. 1853 Pictou, N.S.)
• William Bell Dawson (b. 1853 N.S.)
• Eva Dawson (b. 1861 Montreal, QC)
• Rankine Dawson
  • 1896 m. @ St. Michael's Church, Chester Square, London: Gloranna M. Coats.

Titles & Memberships

Awards

• Lyell Medal of Geological Society, 1881.
• Created C.M.G., 1882.
• Created Knight Bachelor, 1884.

Leadership

• Charter Superintendent of Education of Nova Scotia, 1850.
• Principal, McGill University, 1855.
• President, American Association, 1882-3.
• President, British Association, 1886.
• President, Geological Association of America, 1893.
• Hon. President, Natural History Society of Montreal (oldest scientific society in Canada)
• Vice-President, British and Foreign Bible Society
• President, Montreal Auxiliary Bible Society.

Fellowships

• Fellow, Geological Society of London, 1854.
• Fellow, Royal Society, London, 1862.
• Fellow, Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston.
• Fellow, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
• Fellow, Geological Society of America.
• Associate, Academie Internationale de Geographe Botanique.
• Hon. Fellow, Edinburgh Geological Society.

Honorary Memberships

• Natural History Society, New Brunswick.
• Literary and Philosophical Society, Manchester.
• Maryland Academy.
• New York Academy of Science.
• Philosophical Society, Princeton.
• Philosophical Society, Leeds.
• Boston Society of Natural History.
• Geographical Society of Australia
• Nova Scotia Society of Mining Engineers
• Canadian Society of Civil Engineers
• Geological Association, Liverpool.
• Essex Institute, Salem.
• Societe Belge de Geologie, Palaeontologie,&c.
• Brooklyn Institute
• North-Western Historical and Literary Society, Iowa.

Corresponding Memberships

• Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia.
• Portland Society of Natural History
• Nova Scotia Institute
• Geological Society, Manchester
• Lyceum Natural History, New York.

Bibliography

Papers

• 150+ articles in the "Canadian Naturalist", "Journal of the Geological Society of London", etc.

• Lower Carboniferous Formation of Nova Scotia, Quarterly Journal, 1843.
  • initiated communicated by Sir Charles Lyell to the Geological Society of London
• Natural History in its Educational Aspects, 1857.
  • extracts from the intro lecture of the Popular course of the Natural History Society of Montreal, Winter of 1856-7.
• Alpine and Arctic Plants
  • Lecture @ YMCA Montreal, Feb. 1862.
• The Geological History of the North Atlantic
  • Presidential Address, British Association for the Advancement of Science. Birmingham Meeting, Sept. 1886.
• New Species of Fossil Sponges from Little Metis; Montreal: Dawson Bros., 1888.

Books

• Geography and Natural History of Nova Scotia
• Contributions to the Improvement of Agriculture
• Acadian Geology, Edinburgh, 1855.
• Archaia, or Studies of the Narrative of Creation in the Hebrew Scriptures, London: Sampson Low, Son & Co., 1860.
  • revised as The Origin of the World, New York: Harper & Bros. Pub., 1877.
• Air-Breathers of the Coal Period: A Descriptive Account of the Remains of Land Animals Found in the Coal Formation of Nova Scotia, Montreal: Dawson, Brothers, Great St. James Street: 1863.
• The Story of The Earth and Man, 1870. ** Eleven editions.
• Handbook of Zoology, Vol. 1: Invertebrata. Montreal: Dawson Bros., 1870.
• Notes on the Post-pliocene of Canada, 1870.
  • based on a series of papers in the Canadian Naturalist. Some of his notes were also included in 1863 for Logan's Geology of Canada.
• Fossil Plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian Formations of Canada; London: Sampson Low, Son & Marston, 1871.
• The Bible and Science; London: Richard D. Dickinson, 1875.
  • Six lectures delivered at the Madison Ave. Presby. Church, New York.
• Nature and the Bible, New York: Robert Carter and Bros., 1875.
  • based on lectures given in the winter of 1874-1875 at Union Theological Seminary of New York, and Princeton.
• The Dawn of Life, being the History of the Oldest Known Fossil Remains, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1875.
• The Chain of Life in Geological Time, London: Religious Tract Society, 1880.
• Fossil Men and their Modern Representatives, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1880.
• Facts and Fancies in Natural Science, Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1882.
• The Geological History of Plants. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1888.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=1A68AAAAIAAJ Handbook of Geology for the use of Canadian Students. Montreal: Dawson Bros., 1889.
• Modern Ideas of Evolution as related to Revelation and Science. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1890.
• The Ice Age in Canada, Montreal: William V. Dawson, 1893.
• The Meeting-Place of Geology and History. New York & Chicago & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1894.
• Peter Redpath: In Memoriam; Montreal: "Witness" Printing House, 1894.
• Some Salient Points in the Science of the Earth. New York: Harper Bros. Pub., 1894.
• Relics of Primeval Life. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1897.
  • based on six lectures given in 1896 in Boston at the Lowell Institute, by invitation of Augustus Lowell.

Sources

• Wikipedia
• Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography 1600-1899, pp. 127-128
• Fifty Years of Scientific & Educational Work in Canada: Being Autobiographical Notes by Sir William Dawson, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S., ed. by Rankine Dawson, M.A., M.D., M.R C.S.E., Edinburgh & London: Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., 1901.
  • Sir Dawson's autobiography, published post-humously by his sons.
• Encyclopedia Britannica bio
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography