George Herbert Carpenter

George Herbert Carpenter
Born	1865 (1865) Peckham, London
Died	1939 (aged 73–74) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Scientific career
Fields	Entomology, natural history
Institutions	Museum of Science and Art, Dublin

Reverend George Herbert Carpenter (1865–1939) was a British naturalist and entomologist,^[1][2] born in the Peckham district of southeast London in 1865, and died in Belfast on 22 January 1939.^[3][1][4] His main interests were in the study of insects and arachnids, zoogeography, and economic zoology.^[3] In addition to numerous contributions to scientific journals and Encyclopædia Britannica, he authored five books.^[5]

Education and career

Carpenter was privately educated as a youth, and studied at King's College London, earning a Bachelor of Science degree at London University and a Doctor of Science degree from Queen's University Belfast.^[3]

His first employment as a naturalist was as a clerk in the South Kensington Museum, where he pursued an interest in the natural history of Ireland.^[3] In 1888, he took a position in Dublin, Ireland as Assistant Naturalist at the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin, (now the National Museum of Ireland - Natural History) devoting the next 16 years to developing the museum's collections on the natural history of Ireland.^[3]

He was active in the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club and in 1892 he co-founded the Irish Naturalist for which he was editor until 1922.^[3] He was professor of zoology at the Royal College of Science for Ireland (Dublin) from 1904-1922 when he took up a post as Keeper of Manchester Museum and left Dublin. The Irish Naturalist ceased publication in 1924, and was revived as the Irish Naturalists' Journal.^[6] He was a member of the general synod of the Church of Ireland, and was ordained deacon (1926) and priest (1927), where he served at Christ Church, West Didsbury, Manchester (1926–1934), and Saint Augustine's, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire (1935–1937). He is buried in Guildford Cemetery in Surrey.

Publications

Carpenter contributed to a range of scientific journals and to Encyclopædia Britannica, and wrote five books:^[5]

• Insects: Their Structure & Life, A Primer of Entomology. London: J. M. Dent, 1899.
• Catalogue of the Fishes of New York (with Tarleton Hoffman Bean). New York State Museum Bulletin No. 60; Zoology, No. 9. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1903.
• The Life-story of Insects. Cambridge: University press, and G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1913.
• Insect Transformation. London: Methuen, 1921.
• The Biology of Insects. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1928.

Personal

Carpenter was a son of George and Phoebe (née Hooper) Carpenter.^[1] In 1891, he married Emma Eason of Dublin, with whom he had two sons.^[1]

See also

• Category:Taxa named by George Herbert Carpenter

References

1. Henry R. Addison; Charles H. Oakes; William J. Lawson; Douglas B. W. Sladen, eds. (1907). "Carpenter, George Herbert". Who's Who, An Annual Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 59. A. & C. Black. p. 297.
2. I., A. D. (1939). "Dr. G. H. Carpenter". Nature. 143 (3620): 462. doi:10.1038/143462b0.
3. Moffat, Charles B. (1939). "Rev. George Herbert Carpenter, B.Sc. (Lond.), D.Sc. (Q.U.B.)". Irish Naturalists' Journal. 7 (5): 138–141. JSTOR 25532901.
4. Andrews, Helen (1 October 2009). "Carpenter, George Herbert". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Royal Irish Academy. p. 364-365. doi:10.3318/dib.001495.v1.
5. George Herbert Carpenter, (1865–1939)  – via Wikisource.
6. Monaghan, Nigel T. (2025). "The Irish Naturalists' Journal 1925-2025, a century of natural history publishing in Ireland" (PDF). Irish Naturalists' Journal. 42: 1–9.

External links

• Works by George Herbert Carpenter at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about George Herbert Carpenter at the Internet Archive
• "Carpenter, George Herbert" . Thom's Irish Who's Who . Dublin: Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. 32  – via Wikisource.