Frederic Henry Gravely (7 December 1885 – 1965) was an eminent British arachnologist,

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and student of

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

, who conducted pioneering research and wrote extensively on various subjects during his tenure at the

Indian Museum The Indian Museum in Central Kolkata, West Bengal, India, also referred to as the Imperial Museum at Calcutta in colonial-era texts, is the ninth oldest museum in the world, the oldest and largest museum in India as well as in Asia. It has rare ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, and the

Government Museum Government Museum may refer to: * Government Museum, Chennai * Government Museum, Karur * Government Museum (Bangalore) * Government Museum, Mathura * Government Museum, Tiruchirappalli * Cuddalore Government Museum * Government Museum, Pudukko ...

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Early life

Gravely was born in 1885 in Wellingborough,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, England to Arthur Frederic Gravely and Margaret Hutchinson, the eldest of four children. The family were Quakers and although the father was a businessman, he was interested in natural history. His mother came from a farming family which also produced Sir Jonathan Hutchinson. At the age of nine he moved to a boarding school in Sheffield. He then studied at Ackworth and Bootham (both Quaker schools) before moving to Manchester University to study zoology.Aiyappan, A. (1951) Madras Government Museum Centenary Souvenir (1851-1951). pp. 39-50.

Indian Museum, Calcutta

Gravely graduated in 1906 and became a demonstrator at Manchester in 1907. He worked on collections made in the "Discovery" Antarctic Expedition along with S.J. Hickson and worked on Polychaete Larvae. In 1909 he was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the Indian Museum Calcutta. In 1914, still at Calcutta, he received his D.Sc. for the work on the Oriental

Passalidae Passalidae is a family of beetles known variously as "bessbugs", "bess beetles", "betsy beetles" or "horned passalus beetles". Nearly all of the 500-odd species are tropical; species found in North America are notable for their size, ranging from ...

. He unified the monographs of early observers with the notes of

Arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

and Zang to bring to the oriental passalids (1914), and the family itself in general (1918), the classification that is in vogue today with minor alterations.

Government Museum, Madras

Dr. Gravely became the Superintendent of the Government Museum of Madras in 1920. Over the next two decades, he undertook the investigation of the

littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas ...

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

of Krusadai Island,

Gulf of Mannar The Gulf of Mannar ( ) is a large shallow bay forming part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean with an average depth of .

, revived the Bulletin of the museum, and embarked on the scientific preservation, study and interpretation of the museum's collections. His work on ''

Arachnida Arachnida () is a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals (arthropods), in the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnida includes, among others, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, camel spiders, whip spiders and vinegaroon ...

'' and ''

Mollusca Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

'' significantly enhanced the collections of the museum in the two zoological groups. He was also responsible for enlarging the reserve collection, particularly of

Invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

. Dr. Gravely contributed to the overall development of the museum as well. He, along with the Curator Dr. C. Sivaramamurti, ensured in 1938 that the antiquities and industrial art collected by the museum was organized effectively, into a collection that exists even today. The most important of Dr. Gravely's many contributions to the subject was the monograph he collaborated on with T. N. Ramachandran (Curator of Archaeology 1925–1935) on the scientific basis for identifying the period of metal images. Dr. Gravely also donated a variety of sculptures, carvings and bronzes to other institutions, including the Prince of Wales Museum, the

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

Museum and Dr. Ananda Coomaraswami's Museum in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Dr. Gravely, and P V Mayuranathan considerably enhanced the

Herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

and the botanical collections of the museum. Dr. Gravely pioneered the preservation of bronzes collected by the museum. He initiated the electrolytic restoration process which has helped preserve not only bronze objects, but also ethnological, pre-historic and numismatic collections. He also built a separate Chemical Conservation Laboratory, the only one of its kind at the time, in 1937.

Other contributions

He was one of the Foundation Fellows of the National Institute of Sciences of India, now the apex scientific body in the country, Indian National Science Academy. He also served as the Secretary to the Asiatic Society in the period 1915–18. His insect and spider collection is in the

, Calcutta. It notably contain insects,

and Myriapoda from limestone caves in Burma (1911), and oriental

Personal life

In 1925 he married Laura Balling and they had a daughter Ann Margaret (born 1928) and a son John Frederic (born 1931). He supported the

Toc H Toc H (also TH) is an international Christian movement. The name is an abbreviation for Talbot House, "Toc" signifying the letter T in the signals spelling alphabet used by the British Army in World War I. A soldiers' rest and recreation centre ...

of which the first Indian branch was set up in the "Museum House".

Bibliography

*''Hydroid Zoophytes'' (F. H. Gravely and S. J. Hickson), Natural History Journal, 1907 *''Hydrozoa'', Proceedings and Transactions of the Liverpool Biological Society Vol XXII, 1908 *''Notes on the habits and distribution of Limnocnida indica'' (F. H. Gravely and S. P. Agharkar), 1912 *''Three genera of Papuan passalid Coleoptera'', Journal of the Zoological Museum Hamburg, XXX, 1913 *''Limestone caves of Burma and the Malay Peninsula'' (F. H. Gravely, N. Annandale and B. J. Coggin), Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal IX, 1913 *''Account of the oriental Passalidae (Coleoptera)'', Memoirs of the Indian Museum, III, 1914 *''Notes on the habits of Indian insects, myriapods and arachnids'', Records of the Indian Museum Calcutta II, 1915 *''Notes on Indian mygalomorph Spiders'', Records of the Indian Museum Calcutta II, 1915 *''Contribution to the revision of the Passalidae of the World'', Memoirs of the Indian Museum VII, 1918 *''A note on the marine invertebrate fauna of Chandipore, Orissa'', 1919 *''The spiders and scorpions of Barkuda Island'', Records of the Indian Museum XXII, 1921 *''Some Indian spiders of the subfamily Tetragnathinae'', Records of the Indian Museum XXII, 1921 *''Common Indian spiders'', Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society XXVIII, 1922 *''Some Indian spiders of the family Lycosidae'', Records of the Indian Museum XXVI, 1924 *''The Arachnida and Insecta sections (The littoral fauna of Krusadai Island)'', Bulletin of Madras Government Museum, 1927 *''Section on Orders Gymnoblastea and Calyptoblastea (The littoral fauna of Krusadai Island)'', Bulletin of Madras Government Museum, 1927 *''The Indian Species of the Genus Caralluma, Family : Asclepiadaceae'', (F. H. Gravely and P. V. Mayuranathan), 1931 *''Some Indian spiders of the families Ctenidae, Sparassidae, Selenopidae and Clubionidae'', Records of the Indian Museum XXXIII, 1931 *''Catalogue of Hindu Metal Images in the Government Museum, Madras'' (F. H. Gravely and T. N. Ramachandran), 1932 *''The Three Main Styles of Temple Architecture Recognised by Silpa Sastras'' (F. H. Gravely and T. N. Ramachandran), 1934 *''An Outline of Indian Temple Architecture'', 1936 *''An Introduction to South Indian Temple Architecture and Sculptures'' (F. H. Gravely and C. Sivaramamurti), 1939 *''Illustrations of Indian Sculptures Mostly Southern'' (F. H. Gravely and C. Sivaramamurti), 1939 *''Shells and Other Animal Remains Found on the Madras Beach'', Vol I, 1941 *''Shells and Other Animal Remains Found on the Madras Beach'', Vol II, 1942 *''Guide to the Archaeological Galleries'' (F. H. Gravely and C. Sivaramamurti), 1947 *''The Gopuras of Thiruvannamalai'', 1959 *''Notes on Hindu Images'' (F. H. Gravely and C. Sivaramamurti), 1977

References

*Krishnan, R. and Balaram, P. 2007. "Current Science: Some early history." ''Current Science'' 92(1):129-13
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External links

Genera named by F H Gravely

A contribution towards the revision of the Passalidae of the world (1918)

An account of the Oriental Passalidae (Coleoptera) : based primarily on the collection in the Indian Museum (1914)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gravely, Frederick Henry Indian botanical writers Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester English entomologists 1885 births 1965 deaths People from Wellingborough English botanical writers 20th-century British zoologists