Before the Scottish Survey: Alfred Harker the Geologist

Abstract

The archival papers of the eminent petrologist Alfred Harker span his entire geological career of over 60 years. These are held by the Archive of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences (University of Cambridge). Harker was associated with the Department of Geology, the Woodwardian Museum and post-1904, the Sedgwick Memorial Museum. Importantly, his meticulously labelled notebooks provide an unprecedented insight into his development as a field and laboratory scientist. They chart Harker's beginnings as a fossil collector and observer of sedimentary stratigraphy on the North Yorkshire coast, his trips to Wales and Devon with the Sedgwick Club, and his later work in the English Lake District with his friend and colleague John. E. Marr. This paper examines in particular Harker's suite of 20 notebooks kept up until 1894, including his trip to Edinburgh in August 1892. This visit introduced the young scientist to the geology of Scotland for the first time. An overview of Harker's experience and contemporary contacts suggests some reasons why Sir Archibald Geikie later invited him to join the Scottish Survey staff in 1895.