IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 378 LDGSL/701
Held at: Geological Society of London
Title: NECKER, Louis Albert: First geological map of Scotland
Date(s): 1778, [1808]
Level of description: Series
Extent: 1 map
Name of creator(s): Necker | Louis Albert | 1786-1861 | geologist x Necker de Sassure | Louis Albert
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Louis Albert Necker was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1786. His father Jacques Necker was a professor of botany and local magistrate, his mother Albertine was the daughter of the famous alpine geologist and naturalist Horace Benedict de Saussure.
Necker moved to Scotland in 1806 to study at the University of Edinburgh, where he attended the lectures of Robert Jameson, Professor of Natural History and a Wernian. Whilst based in Edinburgh, Necker undertook a series of tours around Scotland, including visits to Fife, Berwickshire, Arran and the Isle of Skye. The result of the tours was the construction of the earliest known geological map of the whole of Scotland, influenced by Huttonian and Wernian principles, which he presented to the Geological Society in 1808.
In 1810, Necker returned to Geneva to become Chair of Mineralogy and Geology but continued to make extensive geological tours. After the death of his mother in 1841, Necker returned to Scotland, settling in the town of Portree on the Isle of Skye. He died on 20 November 1861.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
'Scotland coloured according to the rock formations', by Louis Albert Necker, [1808]. Geological colouring on base map 'North Britain or Scotland divided into its Counties, corrected from the best surveys and astronomical observations by Thomas Kitchin', published by William Faden, 1 December 1778. Dissected on cloth.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Access is by appointment only, daily readership fee is applicable unless you are a member of the Society. Please contact the Archivist for further information.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Item cannot be copied due to its size and condition.
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Map was presented by Louis Albert Necker at the Ordinary Meeting of 4 November 1808. There was originally an accompanying explanatory memoir which is no longer extant.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of copies:
Modern print reproduction, based on map, produced by John Bartholomew and Son Ltd for the Edinburgh Geological Society in 1939.
Publication note:
Eyles, V A. "Louis Albert Necker, of Geneva, and his geological map of Scotland", Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society, vol 14 (1948) pp94-127.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Description by John Thackray; revised by Caroline Lam.
Date(s) of descriptions: May 1985, July 2012