Collection RS45 - Track Notes from the Weekly Courier

Herbert Hedley Scott (1866-1938), museum curator, was born on 15 August 1866 in London, second son of Peter Dewar Scott, accountant, and his wife Mary Susan, née Gale. In October 1887 Scott migrated to New Zealand for his health and after two years in business there settled at Launceston, Tasmania. He was a steward at the Launceston Club from March 1890 until he succeeded Alexander Morton as curator of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in May 1897 and managed the Museum for forty years. He is the longest serving Director. Scott completed a surprising amount of research. In 1905-07 he published a series of palaeontological brochures including important work on the skeleton of Nototherium tasmanicum (Tasmanian Geological Survey Record, no.4, 1915). From 1919 he published in the Royal Society of Tasmania's Papers and Proceedings, often in collaboration with Clive Lord: mostly palaeontological, some studies dealt with seals and whales of the Tasmanian coasts and a few with fossil botany. Under Scott additions to the Museum included the Zoological Gallery (1910), the Historical Wing (1927) and the Fall-Hartnoll Memorial Wing (1937). In 1927 he was instrumental in securing the important Beattie Collection of convict history from Hobart. Herbert Scott died at Launceston on 1 March 1938. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scott-herbert-hedley-8368