Bust of Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873)
Marble bust of Adam Sedgwick by Henry Weekes, 1846. Photograph by Alistair Fyfe, 2009.
Provenance: Presented to the Society by Weekes in December 1846.
Adam Sedgwick is probably best known for his collaborative work with his once close friend Roderick Murchison and for teaching geology to the young Charles Darwin before he set off on his voyage on the Beagle.
Sedgwick originally studied and taught mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1818 he became Woodwardian Professor of Geology at the university. As part of his duties, Sedgwick was expected to lecture on geology, a subject he knew little about at the time. However, he took up the new science energetically, being elected as a Member of the Geological Society that same year. It was at the Society that Sedgwick met Roderick Murchison. The two men became firm friends and collaborated on a number of joint papers on the geology of Britain and Europe between 1828-1842.
In the 1830s Sedgwick and Murchison turned their attention to the geology of Wales. For the most part the pair worked separately—Sedgwick was in the north whilst Murchison examined the strata in the south and the borders. Their resulting findings classified two of the earliest fossil bearing rock strata. Sedgwick's system was called the Cambrian, whilst Murchison's was the Silurian. The two men also defined the Devonian System in 1839. Unfortunately its creation removed any distinctive fauna from Sedgwick's Cambrian. Other geologists found that most of the Cambrian strata which should have been older than the Silurian was in fact the same age. Despite Sedgwick’s increasingly bitter protestations, almost all geologists followed Murchison in expanding the Silurian thereby eradicating the Cambrian.
The issue was only settled after Sedgwick's death. The discovery of a fauna below that of Murchison's oldest Silurian became the basis for a redefined Cambrian. The uppermost strata of Murchison's system were redesignated the Silurian, and the strata in between were termed Ordovician.
He remained the Woodwardian Professor until his death, the University’s Sedgwick Museum now bears his name.
Sedgwick was elected a Member of the Society on 6 November 1818 (no.478), and served as President between 1829-1831. Awarded the Wollaston Medal in 1851.
Sedgwick also appears in the painting 'British Association at Newcastle' (1838).
Mezzotint of Roderick Murchison by William Walker, 1851. (GSL/POR/53/11)