William Alford Lloyd (1826–1880) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

self-taught

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 ...

who became the first professional

aquarist An aquarist is a person who manages aquariums, either professionally or as a hobby. They typically care for aquatic animals, including fish and marine invertebrates. Some may care for aquatic mammals. Aquarists often work at public aquariums. They ...

. Inspired by Gosse's new book, ''The Aquarium'', published in 1854 Lloyd, who worked for a bookseller, began keeping marine animals in glass tanks. On 14 July 1855 he opened a shop advertised in Notes & Queries as “selling everything relating to aquaria” at 164 St John Street Road,

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

, London. In 1856 he opened a new shop “The Aquarium Warehouse” at 20, Portland Road, Regent's Park and in 1860 he supervised the installation of an aquarium The Gardens of the Society of Acclimatation in

Bois de Boulogne The Bois de Boulogne (, "Boulogne woodland") is a large public park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. The land was ceded to the city of Paris by t ...

in Paris. By the 1860s the aquarium craze was over, at least in England, and Lloyd went bankrupt and in 1862 supported by

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owe ...

he moved to Grindel Dammthor, Hamburg to supervise the installation of the circulating system and tanks at the Hamburg Aquarium. Success in Germany led to his appointment as Superintendent of the

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

Aquarium two years before it opened in 1871.

Anton Dohrn Felix Anton Dohrn FRS FRSE (29 December 1840 – 26 September 1909) was a prominent German Darwinist and the founder and first director of the first zoological research station in the world, the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy. He worked ...

who had made Lloyd's acquaintance in 1866 at the Hamburg aquarium invited him to install the aquaria at

Stazione Zoologica The Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn is a research institute in Naples, Italy, devoted to basic research in biology. Research is largely interdisciplinary involving the fields of evolution, biochemistry, molecular biology, neurobiology, cell biol ...

at Naples in the spring of 1873. Here some of Lloyd's circulating system was still operating well into the 20th century. Anton Dohrn's professional biological station flourished and the Swedish Professor Loven of Sweden, who planned a research establishment sent a representative to London to consult with Lloyd. In England Lloyd's last post was as superintendent at the Aston Aquarium,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

References

*Edmund Gosse (1890). ''The Life of Philip Henry Gosse''.

External links

Parlour Aquariums
Very detailed references. Mostly manuscript. English zoologists 1826 births 1880 deaths {{UK-zoologist-stub