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Sir John William Dawson

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

Sir John William Dawson 1820–99, Canadian geologist and educator, b. Pictou, N.S., studied at the Univ. of Edinburgh. After serving (1850–55) as superintendent of education in Nova Scotia, he was from 1855 to 1893 principal of, and professor of geology at, McGill Univ., where he helped found and develop its Redpath museum of botany and geology. He was knighted in 1884. Dawson was a pioneer in paleobotany. His numerous papers and books, many of them classics in geology, include Acadian Geology (1855, 4th ed. 1891), Fossil Men (1880, 3d ed. 1888), and an autobiography, Fifty Years of Work in Canada (1901).

Bibliography: See biography by C. F. O'Brien (1971).

His son, George Mercer Dawson, 1849–1901, was a geologist (1873–75) for the North American Boundary Commission. On the staff of the Canadian Geological Survey from 1875, he served as its director from 1895. He did pioneer geological work in the Northwest Territories and in British Columbia and explored the Yukon valley. Dawson , former capital of Yukon, Canada, was named for him.

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Dawson, John William

The Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations | 2006 | Copyright

Dawson, John William 1820–99 Canadian geologist
1. The science of the earth…invites us to be present at the origin of things, and to enter into the very worship of the Creator.The Story of the Earth and Man (1887), vi.

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Sir William Dawson (1820-1899): a very modern paleobotanist. Magazine article from: Atlantic Geology; 7/1/2005
	"Such a section as never was put together before": Logan, Dawson, Lyell, and... Magazine article from: Atlantic Geology; 7/1/2005
	Stratigraphy and sedimentology of early Pennsylvanian red beds at Lower Cove,... Magazine article from: Atlantic Geology; 7/1/2005