John MacGillivray

author

John MacGillivray

1822–1867

A Scottish naturalist and collector, he helped document the wildlife of Australia and the Pacific during major 19th-century voyages. His journals and specimens became part of the early record of a region that was still little known to European science.

2 Audiobooks

Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. — Volume 2 Including Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. to Which Is Added the Account of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition for the Exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist to the Expedition.

Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. — Volume 2 Including Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. to Which Is Added the Account of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition for the Exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist to the Expedition.

by John MacGillivray

Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. — Volume 1 Including Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. to Which Is Added the Account of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition for the Exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist to the Expedition.

Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. — Volume 1 Including Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. to Which Is Added the Account of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition for the Exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist to the Expedition.

by John MacGillivray

About the author

Born in Aberdeen in December 1821, John MacGillivray was the son of the noted ornithologist William MacGillivray. He studied medicine in Edinburgh but left before finishing his course when he was appointed to work as a naturalist on an expedition backed by the Earl of Derby.

MacGillivray is best known for joining Royal Navy surveying voyages in the Pacific, including work aboard HMS Fly and HMS Rattlesnake. During these expeditions he collected and described plants and animals from Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, and later published Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, a firsthand account of travel, science, and exploration in the region.

He spent much of his working life in and around Australia, continuing to collect natural history specimens until his death in Sydney on June 6, 1867. Although not as widely remembered as some explorers of his time, his fieldwork and writing remain valuable to the history of natural science in Australia and the Pacific.