Taylor, Thomas Griffith, 1880–1963

Epithet: Professor of Geography at Toronto University

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000750.0x00032b

Thomas Griffith Taylor was born on 1 December 1880 in Essex. His family emigrated to Australia in 1893 and he was educated there, reading geology and physics at the University of Sydney. After teaching for two years, he spent three years as an Exhibition Science Research Scholar in geology at Cambridge University.

He was selected as senior geologist for the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913 (leader Robert Falcon Scott), during the expedition he explored extensively among the mountains and glaciers of the Royal Society Range and Dry Valleys west of McMurdo Sound.

After the expedition, he returned to Australia to become lecturer in geography at Melbourne University, after which he held chairs in geography at Sydney University (1917-1918), the University of Chicago (1929-1935) and the University of Toronto (1936-1951).

He was a foundation member of the Australian National Research Council, president of the American, Australian and Canadian Institutes of Geographers and an active member of many other societies. He died in Sydney on 5 November 1963.

Published work With Scott, the silver lining by Thomas Griffith Taylor, Smith, Elder & Co. London (1916) SPRI Library Shelf (7)91(08)[1910-1913] and Journeyman Taylor, the education of a scientist by Thomas Griffith Taylor (abridged and edited by Alasdair Alpin MacGregor), Robert Hale, London (1958) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Taylor, T. G.] and Antarctic adventure and research by Thomas Griffith Taylor, D. Appleton & Co. New York (1930) SPRI Library Shelf (7)

From the guide to the Thomas Griffith Taylor collection, 1910-1962, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)