Edmund Tyrel Artis

Edmund Tyrell Artis (1789, Sweffling, Suffolk – 24 December 1847, Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire) was a British geologist, artist, and pioneer of palaeobotany and archaeology.

Biography During Artis's lifetime most of the researchers in botany, geology, paleontology, archaeology, or antiquarian studies were born into the upper class in terms of wealth or education, but Artis was born in a small village where his father worked as a carpenter and his mother was illiterate. Both parents died in poverty. In 1805, at age 16, Edmund Artis went to London to work for an uncle in the wine trade and by 1811 had accumulated enough capital to open his own confectionery shop in Dorset Street, Marylebone. In 1811 he married Elizabeth Poole at St James's Church, Piccadilly. A year later, they had a daughter.

In 1813 In his 1824 journal, Clare noted that one of the executors of his will was to be Artis.

Artis collected fossils from the gravels of the geological terraces of the River Nene and from the carboniferous deposits in the coal mines owned by the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam. was able to commandeer the help of some of the miners. Artis assembled a collection of approximately 1000 to 1500 plant fossils, many having exceptional quality. with sponsorship by William Buckland. — partly because the quality of the illustrations and the clear descriptions eliminated ambiguity. Artis’s research had outstanding value because he collected fossils by his own fieldwork, while most of his contemporary competitors purchased their fossils from collectors. Remarkably, he also developed a version of the Koopmans-Walton technique introduced in 1928. Artis began his investigation of the site when he discovered a mosaic pavement in the churchyard at Castor. From 1823 to 1825 he published the first four parts of The Durobrivae of Antoninus by subscription. This later work was supported by another local landowner, Francis Russell, 7th Duke of Bedford, instead of the 5th Earl Fitzwilliam.

Selected publications

online text at Hathitrust