Worthington George Smith
Encyclopedia
Worthington George Smith (23 March 1835-27 October 1917) was an English cartoonist
and illustrator
, archaeologist, plant pathologist, and mycologist.
, London, the son of a civil servant. He received an elementary education at a local school and was then apprenticed as an architect. He married Henrietta White in 1856 and the couple had seven children, only three of whom survived childhood.
Smith worked for the architect Sir Horace Jones, becoming an expert draughtsman and a member of the Architectural Association. In 1861, however, he left the profession (having been required to design drains for Sir Horace) and embarked on a second career as a freelance illustrator. He put his former experience to use by producing illustrations for The Builder
(a journal still published today) and continued as a regular contributor for the next twenty years.
In 1880, he co-authored Illustrations of the British Flora with the noted botanical illustrator Walter Hood Fitch
.
Outlines of British Fungology in 1891.
In 1875, Smith published a paper describing and illustrating the overwintering spores of Phytophthora infestans
, the causal agent of late blight of potatoes, the disease responsible for the great Irish potato famine. For this he was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's
Knightian gold medal. The German mycologist Anton de Bary
pointed out that Smith had actually described some contaminating spores, but national pride upheld Smith's reputation as a plant pathologist and he was appointed to several governmental commissions on plant diseases, as well as publishing a book on the subject in 1884.
He restored Sowerby's
clay models of fungal fruitbodies displayed at the Natural History Museum
and in 1898 wrote a successful short guide to them (later revised and reissued by John Ramsbottom
). In 1908, he also wrote a "descriptive catalogue" of the specimens and drawings of the British Basidiomycetes held at the museum.
Worthington G. Smith was the first mycologist to lead a fungus foray. In 1868 he was invited by the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club
to be the expert leader of a field meeting dubbed "a foray among the funguses". This was so successful that the club held annual "forays" for the next 24 years. Smith helped publicize the club and its forays with a series of cartoons in various journals, some of them caricaturing the leading mycologists of the day. He also designed illustrated menus in similar style for the club's annual fungus dinners at the Green Dragon in Hereford
. Smith became an honorary member of the club and in 1874, as a token of appreciation, was presented with a set of cutlery engraved with fungi taken from his illustrations. In 1896 Worthington G. Smith became a founder member of the British Mycological Society
and was elected its President in 1904. He was also a Fellow of the Linnean Society
.
Smith's reputation as a mycologist and plant pathologist has been overshadowed by the more lasting achievements of his contemporaries. His book on plant diseases was said to have been "out of touch" when published and C.G. Lloyd
claimed his Synopsis of the British Basidiomycetes resembled "an attempt by someone living in the Sahara to write a book about a rain forest." Many of the new fungal species described by Smith have been relegated to synonymy, though those that remain current include the agaric Leucoagaricus georginae (W.G. Sm.) Candusso and the bolete Rubinoboletus rubinus (W.G. Sm.) Pilát & Dermek. Smith's collections are now held in the mycological herbarium
at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
. The species Agaricus worthingtonii Fr., Clitopilus smithii Massee, and Geastrum smithii Lloyd were named after him.
Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain (1872). In 1878 he found stone tools in building excavations at Stoke Newington Common
and traced the tool-bearing layer over a wide area of north-east London. He discovered a similar site at Caddington
, Bedfordshire
, and published his findings in Man, the Primeval Savage (1894). He subsequently found further sites at Whipsnade
and elsewhere, as well as making other archaeological discoveries in the Bedfordshire area.
Smith became the local county secretary for the Society of Antiquaries
in 1897. In 1902 he was awarded a civil-list
pension of £50 per annum "for services to archaeology" on the recommendation of Lord Avebury
and Sir John Evans. The items he discovered are now dispersed, but some of his collections are held at the British Museum
, Luton Museum, and the Museum of London
.
, Bedfordshire, in 1884. There, he not only pursued his mycological and archaeological interests, but also investigated the history of the town. Amongst other things, he discovered and translated the charter granted to the town by King Henry I
. As a result of his researches, he wrote an extensive book called Dunstable, its history and surroundings, published in 1904 and reprinted in 1980. In 1903 he became the first freeman
of the borough of Dunstable, "in appreciation of the eminent services rendered to his country in connection with his profession, and his munificent gifts to the Corporation".
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, archaeologist, plant pathologist, and mycologist.
Background and career
Worthington G. Smith was born in ShoreditchShoreditch
Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...
, London, the son of a civil servant. He received an elementary education at a local school and was then apprenticed as an architect. He married Henrietta White in 1856 and the couple had seven children, only three of whom survived childhood.
Smith worked for the architect Sir Horace Jones, becoming an expert draughtsman and a member of the Architectural Association. In 1861, however, he left the profession (having been required to design drains for Sir Horace) and embarked on a second career as a freelance illustrator. He put his former experience to use by producing illustrations for The Builder
Building (magazine)
Building is one of the United Kingdom’s oldest business-to-business magazines, launched as The Builder in 1843 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom – architect of Birmingham Town Hall and designer of the Hansom Cab. The journal was renamed Building in 1966 as it is still known today. Building is the only UK...
(a journal still published today) and continued as a regular contributor for the next twenty years.
Botany and horticulture
Smith had an interest in natural history and gardening, and gradually developed a reputation as a botanical illustrator. His work appeared in the Gardeners' Chronicle and in 1869 he became its chief illustrator, retaining this position for the next 40 years. He also contributed illustrations to the Journal of Horticulture and other periodicals.In 1880, he co-authored Illustrations of the British Flora with the noted botanical illustrator Walter Hood Fitch
Walter Hood Fitch
Walter Hood Fitch was a botanical illustrator, born in Glasgow, Scotland, who executed some 10,000 drawings for various publications...
.
Mycology and plant pathology
Worthington G. Smith's particular expertise was in fungi, which he collected, studied, and illustrated. He published extensively, writing over 200 articles and papers, as well as several books. His first major work in 1867 was to produce coloured illustrations of poisonous and edible fungi, printed in linen-backed poster format with an accompanying booklet. He published Clavis Agaricinorum (a key to British agarics) in 1870, wrote a popular book on mushrooms and toadstools in 1879, illustrated Stevenson's Hymenomycetes Britannici in 1886, and produced a supplement to M.J. Berkeley'sMiles Joseph Berkeley
Miles Joseph Berkeley was an English cryptogamist and clergyman, and one of the founders of the science of plant pathology....
Outlines of British Fungology in 1891.
In 1875, Smith published a paper describing and illustrating the overwintering spores of Phytophthora infestans
Phytophthora infestans
Phytophthora infestans is an oomycete that causes the serious potato disease known as late blight or potato blight. . Late blight was a major culprit in the 1840s European, the 1845 Irish and 1846 Highland potato famines...
, the causal agent of late blight of potatoes, the disease responsible for the great Irish potato famine. For this he was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's
Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
Knightian gold medal. The German mycologist Anton de Bary
Anton de Bary
Heinrich Anton de Bary was a German surgeon, botanist, microbiologist, and mycologist ....
pointed out that Smith had actually described some contaminating spores, but national pride upheld Smith's reputation as a plant pathologist and he was appointed to several governmental commissions on plant diseases, as well as publishing a book on the subject in 1884.
He restored Sowerby's
James Sowerby
James Sowerby was an English naturalist and illustrator. Contributions to published works, such as A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland or English Botany, include his detailed and appealing plates...
clay models of fungal fruitbodies displayed at the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
and in 1898 wrote a successful short guide to them (later revised and reissued by John Ramsbottom
John Ramsbottom (mycologist)
John Ramsbottom was a British mycologist.He was Keeper of Botany at the British Museum . He served as general secretary and twice as president of the British Mycological Society, and was long editor of its Transactions. He was president of the Linnean Society from 1937 to 1940 and was awarded...
). In 1908, he also wrote a "descriptive catalogue" of the specimens and drawings of the British Basidiomycetes held at the museum.
Worthington G. Smith was the first mycologist to lead a fungus foray. In 1868 he was invited by the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club
Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club
The Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club is a local society devoted to the natural history, geology, archaeology, and history of Herefordshire, England...
to be the expert leader of a field meeting dubbed "a foray among the funguses". This was so successful that the club held annual "forays" for the next 24 years. Smith helped publicize the club and its forays with a series of cartoons in various journals, some of them caricaturing the leading mycologists of the day. He also designed illustrated menus in similar style for the club's annual fungus dinners at the Green Dragon in Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
. Smith became an honorary member of the club and in 1874, as a token of appreciation, was presented with a set of cutlery engraved with fungi taken from his illustrations. In 1896 Worthington G. Smith became a founder member of the British Mycological Society
British Mycological Society
The British Mycological Society is a learned society established in 1896 to promote the study of fungi.-Formation:The Society was formed based on the efforts of two local societies, the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club of Hereford and the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. The curator of the Hereford...
and was elected its President in 1904. He was also a Fellow of the Linnean Society
Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is the world's premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. It publishes a zoological journal, as well as botanical and biological journals...
.
Smith's reputation as a mycologist and plant pathologist has been overshadowed by the more lasting achievements of his contemporaries. His book on plant diseases was said to have been "out of touch" when published and C.G. Lloyd
Curtis Gates Lloyd
Curtis Gates Lloyd was an American mycologist known for both his research on the Gasteromycetes, as well as his controversial views on naming conventions in taxonomy. He had a herbarium with over 59,000 fungal specimens, and published over a thousand new species of fungi...
claimed his Synopsis of the British Basidiomycetes resembled "an attempt by someone living in the Sahara to write a book about a rain forest." Many of the new fungal species described by Smith have been relegated to synonymy, though those that remain current include the agaric Leucoagaricus georginae (W.G. Sm.) Candusso and the bolete Rubinoboletus rubinus (W.G. Sm.) Pilát & Dermek. Smith's collections are now held in the mycological herbarium
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...
. The species Agaricus worthingtonii Fr., Clitopilus smithii Massee, and Geastrum smithii Lloyd were named after him.
Archaeology
Worthington G. Smith's reputation as an archaeologist, specializing in the palaeolithic era, has grown rather than diminished. Of the five Lower Palaeolithic occupation sites known from Britain, four were discovered by Smith. He became interested in the subject after reading Sir John Evans'sJohn Evans (archaeologist)
Sir John Evans, KCB, FRS was an English archaeologist and geologist.-Biography:John Evans was the son of the Rev. Dr A. B. Evans, headmaster of Market Bosworth Grammar School, and was born at Britwell Court, Buckinghamshire...
Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain (1872). In 1878 he found stone tools in building excavations at Stoke Newington Common
Stoke Newington Common
Stoke Newington Common is an open space in Stoke Newington in the London Borough of Hackney. It is east of Stoke Newington High Street, with Northwold Road to the north, and it straddles the busy Rectory Road....
and traced the tool-bearing layer over a wide area of north-east London. He discovered a similar site at Caddington
Caddington
Caddington is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. It is between the Dunstable/Luton urban area , and Hertfordshire ....
, Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
, and published his findings in Man, the Primeval Savage (1894). He subsequently found further sites at Whipsnade
Whipsnade
Whipsnade is a small village and civil parish in the county of Bedfordshire. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, about 2.5 miles South-South-West of Dunstable...
and elsewhere, as well as making other archaeological discoveries in the Bedfordshire area.
Smith became the local county secretary for the Society of Antiquaries
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
in 1897. In 1902 he was awarded a civil-list
Civil list
-United Kingdom:In the United Kingdom, the Civil List is the name given to the annual grant that covers some expenses associated with the Sovereign performing their official duties, including those for staff salaries, State Visits, public engagements, ceremonial functions and the upkeep of the...
pension of £50 per annum "for services to archaeology" on the recommendation of Lord Avebury
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury PC , FRS , known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 until 1900, was a polymath and Liberal Member of Parliament....
and Sir John Evans. The items he discovered are now dispersed, but some of his collections are held at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, Luton Museum, and the Museum of London
Museum of London
The Museum of London documents the history of London from the Prehistoric to the present day. The museum is located close to the Barbican Centre, as part of the striking Barbican complex of buildings created in the 1960s and 70s as an innovative approach to re-development within a bomb damaged...
.
A freeman of Dunstable
For reasons of health, Smith moved to his wife's home town of DunstableDunstable
Dunstable is a market town and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, 30 miles north of London. These geographical features form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north.-Etymology:In...
, Bedfordshire, in 1884. There, he not only pursued his mycological and archaeological interests, but also investigated the history of the town. Amongst other things, he discovered and translated the charter granted to the town by King Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
. As a result of his researches, he wrote an extensive book called Dunstable, its history and surroundings, published in 1904 and reprinted in 1980. In 1903 he became the first freeman
Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
of the borough of Dunstable, "in appreciation of the eminent services rendered to his country in connection with his profession, and his munificent gifts to the Corporation".
Selected works
- Mushrooms and Toadstools: How to distinguish easily the differences between the Edible and Poisonous Fungi (David Brogue, 1879).
- Diseases of field and garden crops. (Macmillan, 1884)
- Outlines of British fungology: Supplement. (Reeve, 1891)
- Man, the primeval savage; his haunts and relics from the hilltops of Bedfordshire to Blackwall. (E. Stanford, 1894)
- Guide to Sowerby's models of British fungi in the Department of Botany, British Museum (Natural History). (British Museum,1898)
- Dunstable: The downs and the district: A handbook for visitors. (The Homeland Association,1904)