Alexander Wilson was ...
Biography edit
Early life edit
Wilson's father, Alexander Wilson Sr., was born to a family of Covenanters who fled Lochwinnoch for Campbeltown to escape religious persecution. As a young man, Wilson Sr. returned to Renfrewshire to become a weaver in Paisley. Wilson's mother Mary McNab, meanwhile, originally hailed from Jura in the Inner Hebrides, but moved from Dunbartonshire to Paisley as a child.[1] Alexander Wilson Jr. was the fifth of six children born to Alexander Sr. and Mary, born on 6 July 1766 in Paisley.[1] Four days after his birth, he was baptised in a local Presbyterian church by John Witherspoon. His parents wanted Wilson, nicknamed "Sandy", to become a Presbyterian minister himself, and in addition to attending Paisley Grammar School, he had a private theology tutor.[2] Wilson and his siblings had a reputation for extroversion and adventure, with Wilson describing himself as "a bird of passage" who would often wander into Oakshaw Hill and the nearby Gleniffer Braes.[3]
Wilson's mother died of tuberculosis when her son was 10 years old, and his father shortly remarried fellow widow Catherine Urie (neé Brown).[4] Urie had two children from her prior marriage, and she and Wilson Sr. soon had a child together. By February 1777, there were six children living in the Wilson household: three from Wilson's first marriage, two from Urie's first, and Janet, their youngest.[5] The financial burdens associated with raising such a large family, coupled with the limited demand for Scottish textiles during the American Revolutionary War, placed a strain on the family,[5] and Wilson was taken out of grammar school shortly after his tenth birthday.[6] The Wilson family moved from their Paisley farm to Auchenbathie Tower, while Wilson began an apprenticeship with a cattle rancher in the Lands of Threepwood. Because Wilson's employer Mr. Stevenson had no fences, hedgerows, or other methods of limiting where his cattle could graze, Wilson was tasked with preventing them from eating the neighbors' crops as they grazed.[7] Spending most of his time outdoors in solitude, Wilson began writing poetry, with his earliest surviving work dating between 1776 and 1779.[8]
United States edit
Two years after moving to the United States, Wilson began a teaching career in Pennsylvania. He taught at the Milestown School in northeast Philadelphia from 1796 to 1801, at which point he moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey.[9] His tenure in Bloomfield was brief and unhappy, influenced by the low wages given to teachers and by an unrequited love affair,[6] and in February 1802, Wilson left New Jersey to accept a position at the Union School in Grays Ferry, Philadelphia.[9]
Scientific career edit
Under the mentorship of William Bartram, Wilson became the first major ornithologist operating in the United States.[10] Wilson created 320 known figure drawings of American birds during his career, representing 262 distinct species, of which 39 were entirely new to naturalists and another 23 were drawn in great enough detail that they were distinguished as new species from European variants.[11]
Legacy edit
Published works edit
See also edit
Notes edit
References edit
- ^ a b Burns 1910, p. 79.
- ^ Burtt, Jr. & Davis, Jr. 2013, p. 13.
- ^ Hunter 1983, p. 21.
- ^ Burns 1910, p. 80.
- ^ a b Hunter 1983, p. 22.
- ^ a b Slatkin, Carole Anne (1999). "Wilson, Alexander (1766–1813), ornithologist". American National Biography (online ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1700938. (subscription required)
- ^ Burtt, Jr. & Davis, Jr. 2013, p. 14.
- ^ Burtt, Jr. & Davis, Jr. 2013, p. 15.
- ^ a b Filemyr, Albert; Holt, Jeff (June 2014). "Locating Alexander Wilson's Bristol Township and the Milestown School". The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 126 (2): 401–405. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
- ^ Egerton, Frank N. (July 2007). "A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 25. American Naturalists Explore Eastern North America: John and William Bartram". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 88 (3): 253–268. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
- ^ Allen 1951, p. 553.
Works cited edit
- Allen, Elsa Guerdrum (1951). "The History of American Ornithology before Audubon". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 41 (3): 387–591. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
- Burns, Frank L. (1910). "Alexander Wilson. VIII. His Early Life and Writings". The Wilson Bulletin. 22 (2): 79–96. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
- Burtt, Jr., Edward H.; Davis, Jr., William E. (2013). Alexander Wilson: The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology. Cambridge, MA and London, UK: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-07255-8. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
- Hunter, Clark (1983). The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson. Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-154-X. ISSN 0065-9738. Retrieved December 19, 2021.