John William Dawson was born on 13 October 1820 in
Pictou,
Nova Scotia, where he attended and graduated from
Pictou Academy. Of Scottish descent, Dawson attended the
University of Edinburgh to complete his education, and graduated in 1842, having gained a knowledge of geology and
natural history from
Robert Jameson. Dawson returned to Nova Scotia in 1842, accompanying
Sir Charles Lyell on his first visit to that territory. Dawson was subsequently appointed as Nova Scotia's first superintendent of education. Holding the post from 1850 to 1853, he was an energetic reformer of school design, teacher education and curriculum. Influenced by the American educator Henry Barnard, Dawson published a pamphlet titled, "School Architecture; abridged from Barnard's School Architecture" in 1850. One of the many schools built to his design, the
Mount Hanley Schoolhouse still survives today, including the "Dawson Desks" named after him. Dawson's travels as school superintendent allowed him to deepen his geological studies, as he visited and studied geological sites across the region, leading to publication of his classic "Acadian Geology" (1855 and subsequent editions). He entered zealously into the geology of Canada, making a special study of the fossil forests of the coal-measures of
Joggins, Nova Scotia, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During the course of his second exploration of the cliffs with Charles Lyell in 1852, he discovered the remains of a tetrapod named
Dendrerpeton entombed within a fossil tree. Over the years, he continued his exploration of the fossil trees, eventually unearthing the oldest known reptile in the history of life, which he named
Hylonomus lyelli in honour of his mentor. From 1855 to 1893 he was professor of geology and principal of
McGill University in Montreal, an institution which under his influence attained a high reputation. In 1859 he published a seminal paper describing the first fossil plant found in rocks of
Devonian origin. Although his discovery did not have the impact that might have been expected at the time, he is now considered one of the founders of the science of palaeobotany. He later described the fossil plants of the
Silurian,
Devonian and
Carboniferous rocks of Canada for the
Geological Survey of Canada (1871–1873). He was elected
FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society) in 1862. When the
Royal Society of Canada was created he was the first to occupy the presidential chair, and he also acted as president of the British Association at its meeting at Birmingham in 1886,
president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1882, and president of the
Geological Society of America in 1893. Sir William Dawson's name is especially associated with
Eozoon canadense, which in 1865 he described as an organism having the structure of a
foraminifer. It was found in the
Laurentian rocks, regarded as the oldest known geological system. His views on the subject were contested at the time, and have since been disproven, the so-called organism being now regarded as a mineral structure. He was appointed
CMG in 1881, and was
knighted in 1884. In 1886 he was awarded honorary membership of the
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, In 1882, while looking to fill the vacancy left at McGill by the death of botanist
James Barnston, Dawson contacted
Asa Gray of
Harvard University for recommendations. Gray suggested his former assistant
David P. Penhallow, whom Dawson accepted as a lecturer. He died in Montreal, 19 November 1899, and was buried in Mount Royal Cemetery. Lady Dawson served as President of the Ladies' Bible Association. Lady Dawson cofounded the Ladies' Educational Institute of Montreal with Mrs.
John Molson and others. Sir William and Lady Dawson had several sons. The eldest,
George Mercer Dawson, served as Director of the
Geological Survey of Canada in 1895. He is interred in the
Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal,
Quebec, and is the namesake for
Dawson College. The mineral
dawsonite, which was discovered during the building of the
Redpath Museum with which he was intimately related, is named in his honour. == Creationism ==