Jul 252016
 

Archibald Geikie's houseRamsay Gardens, Castle Hill, Edinburgh EH1 2NA

Collaborating with Roderick Murchison, Archibald Geikie produced the first geological map of Scotland in 1862 while working for the Geological Survey of Great Britain. He went on to become the first professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh from 1871 to 1881 and then head of the Geological Survey in 1881. He published widely on subjects as diverse as glacial drift (1863), the scenery of Scotland (1865) and the extinct volcanoes of Britain (1897). In 1976 he had a ridge on the Moon, Dorsa Geikie, named after him.

No public access.

Portrait of Sir Archibald Geikie (1835-1924), 1913.

Portrait of Sir Archibald Geikie (1835-1924), 1913.

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Jul 252016
 

James Geikie house16 Duncan Street, Edinburgh EH9 1SR

James Geikie was professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh from 1882 to 1914, succeeding his brother Archibald Geikie in the chair. He had previously worked for the Geological Survey since 1861. His fame rests largely on his work on the ice ages of the Pleistocene epoch. He developed the hypothesis that there had been five interglacial periods between the ice ages. In his The Great Ice Age and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man (1874) he proposed that humanity had continued to inhabit Europe throughout the ice ages.

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University of Edinburgh, Information Services: James Geikie, Geology and History