author
Dawson Turner
1775–1858
A prosperous Norfolk banker who turned his energy toward science and history, he became known for serious work on mosses, algae, and old English monuments. His life joined business, collecting, scholarship, and a wide circle of literary and scientific friendships.
3 Audiobooks
Architectural Antiquities of Normandy
by John Sell Cotman, Dawson Turner
Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 2
by Dawson Turner
Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 1
by Dawson Turner
About the author
Born in Great Yarmouth in 1775, Dawson Turner was an English banker, botanist, and antiquary. He worked in the family bank, which gave him the means to pursue a wide range of interests, and he became especially known for studying cryptogams such as mosses and algae.
Turner also built a reputation as a collector and scholar of art, manuscripts, and historical remains. Alongside his botanical work, he wrote on architectural and antiquarian subjects, helping preserve knowledge of old buildings and monuments at a time when many were changing or disappearing.
He was a fellow of major learned societies and moved in an influential intellectual circle. Turner died in 1858, remembered as one of those energetic nineteenth-century figures who connected local history, natural science, and collecting into a single lifelong pursuit.