Alexander Walker Scott

Alexander Walker Scott (born November 10, 1800 in Bombay , † November 1, 1883 in Paddington , New South Wales ) was an Australian politician, entrepreneur and entomologist , best known for his work on Australian butterflies, on which his daughters Helen and Harriet as Illustrators were involved.

Scott, Lepidoptera Australia, original watercolor by Helena Scott

Scott was the son of a doctor and botanist from whom he got his love for natural history. He attended school in Bath and Cambridge University (Peterhouse College) with a bachelor's degree in 1822 and a master's degree in 1825. He then began law training at Lincoln's Inn in London, but then turned to the business world. In 1827 he traveled to Australia for the first time. He worked as a shipowner for the traffic between England and Australia, but this was a financial failure. In 1829 he bought land near Newcastle and Maitland in New South Wales (including Ash Island in the Hunter River) and grew tobacco, flax and oranges there. In 1831 he brought his mother and sister to Australia. In 1835 he founded an iron foundry and salt works in Stockton. He also took part in a steamship company that operated between Newcastle and Sydney and was involved in the Hunter River Railway Company, which was taken over by the government in 1855. In 1866 he was Land Title Commissioner for New South Wales, but had to file for bankruptcy and sell Ash Island that same year.

From 1856 to 1861 he was an elected member of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales (appointed for life in 1861, from which he resigned in 1866).

In 1846 he married Harriett Calcott. He lived with his family on Ash Island on the Hunter River (Tasman Sea) . His two daughters Harriet Morgan (1830–1907) and Helena Scott (1832–1910), both born in Sydney, supported him there in his entomological work and they made drawings and lithographs for other naturalists in Australia. They were also versed in zoology and botany. Her work with her father about butterflies in Australia and their metamorphosis became known. It took them over ten years to create. Scott has published many articles on entomology.

His entomological collection is in the Australian Museum , of which he was trustee from 1864 to 1879. In 1862 he was a founding member of the Entomological Society of New South Wales and was its President in 1866 and from 1868 onwards and, like his daughters, their Fellow. In 1876 he became a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales.

Fonts

• Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations, drawn from the life by Harriet and Helena Scott, London: John van Voorst 1864, the second part appeared on the initiative of Helen Scott in Sydney in 5 parts from 1890 to 1898 at the Australian Museum
• Mammalia, Recent and Extinct, Sydney 1873

Web links

• New South Wales MPs Biographies
• Nancy Gray, Australian Dictionary of Biography