Alexander Carte

Alexander Carte MD, FRCSI, MRIA (11 August 1805 – 25 September 1881) was an Irish zoologist and palaeontologist and was first director Natural History Museum, Dublin.

Early life Alexander Carte was born 11 August 1805 to Edward and Margaret Carte (née Elliot), in Newcastle West, County Limerick, the couple's only son. Carte systematically overhauled the museum's collections, cataloguing, naming and allocating all exhibits into organised groups. from prominent figures such as Sir Richard Griffith, Sir William Wilde, Andrew Leith Adams, Edward Percival Wright, William Andrews, and Captain Sir Francis Leopold McClintock. Between 1851 and 1861, a large number of donations were made to the museum, most notably a collection of over 2500 bird skins.

During his time as director, Carte oversaw the construction of a purpose-built museum building for the Society's expanding collections, which opened in 1857. When the Museum became part of the new Museum of Science and Art Dublin under the Department of Science and Art London in South Kensington in 1878 following an 1877 act, Carte became the Natural History Museum's first director. Carte's work on the organisation of the Museum, grouping animals taxonomically, A fossil giant dormouse from Malta, Myoxus cartei adams, was named in Carte's honour by Andrew Leith Adams in 1863.

Carte died 25 September 1881, and was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery in the family vault. He was succeeded in the Museum by Alexander Goodman More.