Sir Archibald Geikie O.M. K.C.B.
Life History
Chapter 3
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1871 | He married Anna Alice Gabrielle Pignatel 17th August and lived in a house on Castle Hill, Edinburgh. Their wedding tour included Germany, France and Switzerland. Her mother was English and her father, who had died recently, belonged to a branch of the Pignatel family of southern Italy, which had migrated to France several generations before. Her family home was the Chateau de St. Didier near Lyons, France. He was offered the first holder of the Murchison Chair of Geology and Mineralogy at Edinburgh University. Geikie’s long term friend and professional colleague Sir Roderick Murchison died on 22nd October. |
| 1872 | Their first child, Lucy Isabella, was born on 22nd July. Geikie introduced a course of lectures on geology at Edinburgh University, including field excursions. Courses were also arranged for woman’s education and Geikie’s wife Anna Alice accompanied them. He gave several lectures in Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester. |
| 1873 | Geikie published two of his popular Science Primers. |
| 1874 | The family moved to a newly built house on Colinton Road near Edinburgh. Their son Roderick was born on 11th April. |
| 1875 | In spring, the major work, “Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison” made its public appearance in two octave volumes. The geologist Sir Charles Lyell died. Geikie wrote Charles Lyell's obituary in the journal “Nature”. |
| 1877 | Their third child Elsie was born on 14th July. Geikie accompanied his friend from his days as a student at Edinburgh, the celebrated mineralogist Mathew Heddle to the Loch Eriboll and Durness districts of the North west Highlands. He spent part of the winter writing a memoir on the Old Red Sandstone. |
| 1879 | Geikie visited the USA and toured around Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Yellowstone Park studying various geological features and landscapes. A lecture was given at the Lowell Institute, Boston. He prepared a memoir describing the volcanic history of the Firth of Forth area which was published in the following year. |
| 1880 | Gabrielle Jeanne was born on 20th September (called Margaret at birth, but her name was changed before her christening). |
| 1881 | Geikie received the Murchison Medal. A descriptive paper on the “Geysers of the Yellowstone” was printed in Macmillan's Magazine. Tow other papers were published, on the ancient glaciers of the Rocky Mountains and an obituary to the French Geologist Ami Boue. At the near end of the year Geikie received a letter from the Privy Council Office offering the post of Director-General of the Geological Survey and the Directorship of the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street, London. |
| 1882 | Became Director General of the Geological Survey on the 1st of January and moved to 61 Ladbroke Grove, London. The “Text-book of Geology“ appeared 17th October after five years research work. It was an excellent volume with good sales botha t home and in America. “Geological Sketches at home and abroad” also was published in the same year. |
| 1883 | He assigned the Survey geologists Peach and Horne to investigate the Northwest Highlands and report and publish their findings. |
