Alexander Wilson

For other people named Alexander Wilson, see Alexander Wilson (disambiguation).

Alexander Wilson
Alexander Wilson
Born	July 6, 1766 Paisley, Scotland
Died	August 23, 1813(1813-08-23) (aged 47)
Nationality	Scottish-American
Fields	naturalist
Signature

Alexander Wilson (July 6, 1766 – August 23, 1813) was a Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator. Wilson is now regarded as the greatest American ornithologist prior to Audubon. It was his meeting with Audubon in Louisville, Kentucky in 1810 which probably inspired the younger man to produce a book of his own bird illustrations, though Audubon's reaction to Wilson was decidedly ambiguous.

Several species of bird were named after him, including Wilson's Storm-petrel, Wilson's Plover, Wilson's Phalarope and Wilson's Warbler. The warbler genus Wilsonia was also named for him by Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology is also named after him.

Biography

Wilson was born in Paisley, Scotland, the son of an illiterate distiller. In 1779 he was apprenticed as a weaver. His main interest at this time was in writing poetry (Robert Burns was seven years older than Wilson). Some of Wilson's work - commenting on the unfair treatment of the weavers by their employers - got him into trouble with the authorities. The "golden age of Renfrewshire song" is embodied in the persons of Wilson and Robert Tannahill. Alexander Wilson was born near the Hammils, a broad if not steep waterfall in Paisley where the River Cart skirts Seedhill. It does indeed appear to be the case, as William Motherwell states, that a great amount of literary activity began in Paisley around this time.

An Illustration from the American Ornithology.

In May 1794 Wilson left Scotland with his nephew to find a better life in America. Wilson obtained employment as a schoolteacher in Milestown, near Philadelphia. In 1801 he left Milestown and found a new teaching post in Gray's Ferry, Pennsylvania; Wilson took up residence in nearby Kingsessing. It was here that he met the famous naturalist William Bartram who developed Wilson's interest in ornithology. In 1802 Wilson decided to publish a book illustrating all the North American birds. With this in mind he traveled widely, watching and painting birds and collecting subscribers for his book. The result was the nine-volume American Ornithology (1808–1814), illustrating 268 species of birds, 26 of which had not previously been described. He died during the writing of the ninth volume, which was completed and published after his death by his friend George Ord. Wilson lies buried next to Ord at Gloria Dei Church cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Alexander Wilson died in 1813 in Philadelphia, where he is buried in the Gloria Dei (Old Swedes) Cemetery. He is honoured in his home town of Paisley with a memorial and a statue. The statue stands in the grounds of Paisley Abbey, and the memorial stands on the banks of the River Cart at the Hammills waterfall in Paisley. It is inscribed "Remember Alexander Wilson 1766-1813. Here was his boyhood playground."

Biographies of Alexander Wilson

Wilson was a prolific letter writer giving biographers insight into his life. Below are major biographies written, in part, from his letters.

• The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson by Clark Hunter. The American Philosophical Society for its Memoirs series, Volume 154, Philadelphia. 1983. ISBN 087169154X.
• Alexander Wilson: Wanderer in the Wilderness by Robert Plate. David McKay Company, Inc. New York. 1966. Library of Congress Number 66-11348 (no ISBN).
• Alexander Wilson: Naturalist and Pioneer by Robert Cantwell. J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and New York. 1961. Library of Congress Number 61-12246 (no ISBN)
• Alexander Wilson, Poet-Naturalist: A Study of His Life with Selected Poems by James Southall Wilson. Neale Publishing Company, New York and Washington. 1906.
• Wilson the Ornithologist: A New Chapter in His Life by Allan Park Paton. Longmans, Green & Company. 1863.
• Sketch of the Life of Alexander Wilson by George Ord. Harrison Hall, 1828. Biographer Clark Hunter adds: "This is substantially enlarged from that which Ord wrote for vol. 9 of the American Ornithology. Contains many more letters."
• Biographical Sketch of the Late Alexander Wilson to a Young Friend by Thomas Crichton. J. Neilson, Paisley. 1819.

References

• Biographies for Birdwatchers, Barbara & Richard Mearns ISBN 0-12-487422-3
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wilson, Alexander". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Works written by or about Alexander Wilson at Wikisource
• Media related to Alexander Wilson at Wikimedia Commons
• Alexander Wilson, American Ornithologist Complete illustrations from the 9 vol. edition with critical biography.
• Alexander Wilson Cornell University, Mann Library
• Wilson's poetry A collection of Wilson's poetry compiled at Virginia Tech