Oldfield Thomas

{{Infobox scientist

|honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|FRS|FZS}}

|image = Portrait of Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas - ZooKeys-255-103-g003-bottom right.jpeg

|image_size = 200

|caption = Painting by John Ernest Breun

|birth_name = Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas

|birth_date = 21 February 1858

|birth_place = Millbrook, Bedfordshire, England

|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1929|6|16|1858|2|21}}

|death_place =

|field = Zoology

|known_for = Mammalogy

|workplaces = Natural History Museum

|author_abbrev_zoo = Thomas

}}

Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist.{{Cite book |title=Who's Who |publisher=A & C Black |year=1907 |volume=59 |page=1737 |chapter=Thomas, Oldfield |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1737}}{{Cite journal |last=Haddon |first=Alfred Cort |author-link=Alfred Cort Haddon |year=1929 |title=MR. M. R. Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S |journal=Nature |volume=124 |issue=3116 |pages=101–102 |bibcode=1929Natur.124..101M |doi=10.1038/124101a0 |issn=0028-0836 |doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal |last=Haddon |first=Albert Cort |date=9 May 1901 |title=M. R. Oldfield Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7soKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA37 |url-status=live |journal=Nature |volume=64 |issue=1645 |pages=37–38 |doi=10.1038/064038a0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924105847/https://books.google.com/books?id=7soKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA37 |archive-date=24 September 2020 |access-date=16 October 2016 |doi-access=free}}

Career

Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appointed to the museum secretary's office in 1876, transferring to the zoological department in 1878.

In 1891, Thomas married Mary Kane, daughter of Sir Andrew Clark, heiress to a small fortune, which gave him the finances to hire mammal collectors and present their specimens to the museum.{{Cite web |date=19 January 2016 |title=Between Science and Empire: Oldfield Thomas and Anglo-American Zoology |url=https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/oldfield-thomas-zoology |first1=Jay |last1=Driskell |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624163728/https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/oldfield-thomas-zoology |archive-date=24 June 2019 |access-date=24 June 2019 |website=Smithsonian Institution Archives}} He also did field work himself in Western Europe and South America. His wife shared his interest in natural history, and accompanied him on collecting trips. In 1896, when William Henry Flower took control of the department, he hired Richard Lydekker to rearrange the exhibitions,The Natural History Museum at South Kensington, William T. Stearn {{ISBN|0-434-73600-7}} allowing Thomas to concentrate on these new specimens.Oldfield Thomas, Catalogue of the Marsupialia and Monotremata in the Collection of the British Museum (Natural History) Dept of Zoology (1888), Taylor and Francis, London [https://books.google.com/books?id=F39J5lMIKrEC&dq=%22oldfield+thomas%22&pg=PR1 Catalogue of the Marsupialia... full text]Oldfield Thomas F. R. S., The History of the Collections Contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum Vol. II, Separate Historical accounts of the Historical Collections included in the Department of Zoology, I. Mammals,(1906) William Clowes and Sons Ltd. London. retrieved 21 March 2007 [https://books.google.com/books?id=i1seAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA26 The History of the Collections..." full text]

Thomas viewed his taxonomy efforts from the scope of British imperialism. "You and I in our scientific lives have seen the general knowledge of Mammals of the world wonderfully advanced – there are few or no blank areas anymore", he said in a letter to Gerrit Smith Miller Jr.

Officially retired from the museum in 1923, he continued his work without interruption. Although popular rumours suggested he died by shooting himself with a handgun while sitting at his museum desk,{{Cite book |last=Flannery, T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MAyco5tb2j0C&pg=PT76 |title=Among the Islands: Adventures in the Pacific |date=6 November 2012 |publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated |isbn=978-0-8021-9404-6 |oclc=793838823 |access-date=9 June 2013}} he actually died at home{{Cite web |last=Portch |first=Lorraine |date=18 November 2015 |title=Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas – a resolved ending to a suicide mystery |url=https://blog.nhm.ac.uk/2015/11/18/michael-rogers-oldfield-thomas-a-resolved-ending-to-a-suicide-mystery-for-explorearchives-library-and-archives/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204000114/https://blog.nhm.ac.uk/2015/11/18/michael-rogers-oldfield-thomas-a-resolved-ending-to-a-suicide-mystery-for-explorearchives-library-and-archives/ |archive-date=4 February 2018 |access-date=17 May 2017 |publisher=Blogs from the Natural History Museum |location=London}} in 1929, aged 71, about a year after the death of his wife, "a severe blow from which he never recovered."

Taxonomic descriptions

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References

External links

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