Sir William Flower

A scientific biography written in the early 20th century. It profiles the eminent comparative anatomist and museum reformer Sir William Henry Flower, tracing his path from a nature‑obsessed boy and army surgeon to Conservator of the Royal College of Surgeons’ museum and Director of the Natural History Museum. The work highlights his research on mammals (notably whales), his anthropological studies, and his pioneering ideas on museum display and scientific nomenclature. The opening of the book sketches Flower’s early life, self‑propelled love of natural history, and medical training, followed by his Crimean War service and return to London, where he combined hospital duties with research, married into a scientifically connected family, and began publishing. It then moves to his decisive shift from medical practice to the Royal College of Surgeons, his rise to Hunterian Professor, and his growing public presence—honours, society leadership, and advocacy on animal welfare and conservation—alongside a portrait of his character and final years. The narrative next details his museum achievements: enlarged and clearer human anatomy displays, exemplary preparation and mounting of skeletons, a comparative “homologous bones” series, and catalogues that integrated recent and fossil material, together with firm, commonsense views on stabilising nomenclature and resisting needless generic splitting. His Hunterian lectures—on mammalian osteology and dentition, cetaceans, digestive organs, and the physical anthropology of diverse peoples—are summarized, including the influential textbook that grew from them. Finally, it introduces his Directorship of the Natural History Museum and the creation of the educational Index Museum with realistic taxidermy, lucid labels, and distribution maps, and signals his push to bridge the divide between biology and paleontology, leading into his reorganisation of the mammal gallery.