Title: Portrait of Arthur Aikin
Creator: J Thomson after S Drummond
Description: Portrait of Arthur Aikin, by J Thomson from a painting by S Drummond, published for the ‘European Magazine’ by J Asperne.
Arthur Aikin was one of the original 13 founders of the Geological Society of London.
ARTHUR AIKIN (1773-1854) then of Broad Street Buildings, was a man of wide attainments and sound judgment; a good chemist and mineralogist. He had been a Unitarian minister. At a later date he was secretary of the Society of Arts. He and his brother, C R Aikin, prepared a useful ‘Dictionary of Chemistry and Mineralogy ‘ (2 vols 1807 and 1814). Roderick Murchison acknowledged that in preparing his work on the Silurian System, he “derived much assistance from a valuable original MS on the Structure of Shropshire, by Mr. A. Aikin, the earliest modern geologist, who, with his associate, Mr T Webster, worked in this field.” From Woodward, H B ‘History of the Geological Society of London’, London: Longmans, Green & Co (1907).
Date: 1 June 1819
Format: Stipple engraving
Archive reference: GSL/POR/56/3
Image reference: 01-55
Recommended print size: Up to 10 x 8 inches (25 x 14cm)