Clift , William , 1775-1849 , museum curator and scientific illustrator Owen , Sir , Richard , 1804-1892 , Knight , naturalist

Clift , William , 1775-1849 , museum curator and scientific illustrator Owen , Sir , Richard , 1804-1892 , Knight , naturalist

William Clift was born in Cornwall in 1775, and was educated locally. He became an apprentice anatomical assistant to the celebrated surgeon John Hunter (1728-1793) in 1792. He was appointed conservator of the Hunterian Museum after Hunter's death. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1823, and was a member of the Society for Animal Chemistry. He died in 1849.

Sir Richard Owen was born in Lancaster in 1804. He was educated at Lancaster grammar school, the University of Edinburgh, and St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was a comparative anatomist, a palaeontologist, conservator of the Hunterian Museum, and superintendent of the Natural History collections of the British Museum. He died in 1892.