Robert Jameson

1774-1854

In 1804, Robert Jameson succeeded Dr Walker as the third Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh, a post which he held for fifty years. During this period he became the first eminent exponent in Britain of the Wernerian geological system, or Neptunism, and the acknowledged leader of the Scottish Wernerians, founding and presiding over the Wernerian Natural History Society in 1808 until around 1850, when his health began to decline, together with the fortunes of the Society. As a teacher, Jameson had a mixed reputation for imparting enthusiasm to his students; Thomas Carlyle, who gave serious attention to Natural History, described Jameson's lecturing style as a "blizzard of facts" and Charles Darwin found the lectures boring, saying that they determined him "never to attend to the study of geology". Over Jameson's fifty-year tenure, he built up a huge collection of mineralogical and geological specimens for the Museum of Edinburgh University, including fossils, birds and insects. By 1852 there were over 74,000 zoological and geological specimens at the museum, and in Britain the natural history collection was second only to that of the British Museum. He died at his home, 21 Royal Circus in Edinburgh on 19 April 1854, and was interred at Warriston Cemetery.