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Darwin Correspondence Project

Charles Lyell, 1st baronet

1797–1875

Scottish geologist. Uniformitarian geologist whose Principles of geology (1830–3), Elements of geology (1838), and Antiquity of man (1863) appeared in many editions. Professor of geology, King’s College, London, 1831. President of the Geological Society of London, 1835–7 and 1849–51; of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1864. Travelled widely and published accounts of his trips to the United States. CD’s scientific mentor and friend. Knighted, 1848; created baronet, 1864. FRS 1826.

Sources

DSB

ODNB

Bibliography

DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.

ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.

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