Background
Geikie was born in Edinburgh in 1835, the eldest son of musician and music critic James Stuart Geikie and his wife Isabella Thom.
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Geikie was born in Edinburgh in 1835, the eldest son of musician and music critic James Stuart Geikie and his wife Isabella Thom.
Archibald Geikie was educated at Edinburgh High School and University of Edinburgh. He received the honorary Doctor of Laws (LL. D) from the University of Glasgow in June 1901.
In 1855 Archibald Geikie was appointed an assistant on the British Geological Survey. Wielding the pen with no less facility than the hammer, he inaugurated his long list of works with The Story of a Boulder; or, Gleanings from the Note-Book of a Geologist (1858). Archibald Geikie's ability at once attracted the notice of his chief, Sir Roderick Murchison, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, and whose biographer he subsequently became.
With Murchison some of his earliest work was done on the complicated regions of the Highland schists; and the small geological map of Scotland published in 1862.
In 1863Archibald Geikie published an important essay "In the Phenomena of the Glacial Drift of Scotland".
Later he took a keen interest in volcanic geology, and in 1871 brought before the Geological Society of London an outline of the Tertiary Volcanic history of Britain. Many difficult problems, however, remained to be solved. Here he was greatly aided by his extensive travels, not only throughout Europe, but in western America.
While the canyons of the Colorado confirmed his long-standing views of erosion, the eruptive regions of Wyoming, Montana and Utah supplied him with valuable data in explanation of volcanic phenomena.
The results of his further researches were given in an elaborate and charmingly written essay on "The History of Volcanic Action during the Tertiary Period in the British Isles".
Other results of his travels are collected in his Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad (1882).
His experience as a field geologist resulted in an admirable text-book, Outlines of Field Geology (5th edition, 1900).
After editing and practically re-writing Jukes's Student's Manual of Geology in 1872, he published in 1882.
a Text-Book and in 1886 a Class-Book of geology, which have taken rank as standard worts oftheirkind.
A fourth edition of his Text-Book, in twovols-, was issued in 1903.
His writings are marked in a high degree by charm of style and power of vivid description.
His literary ability has given him peculiar qualifications as a writer of scientific biography, and the Memoir of Edward Forbes (with G. Wilson), and those of his old chiefs, Sir R. I. Murchison (2 vols. , 1875) and Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay (1895), are models of what such works should be.
His Founders of Geology consists of the inaugural course of Lectures (founded by Mrs G. H. Williams) at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, delivered in 1897.
In 1897 Archibald Geikie issued an admirable Geological Map of England and Wales, with Descriptive Notes. In 1898 he delivered the Romanes Lectures, and his address was puhlished under the title of Types of Scenery and their Influence on Literature. Among his works on this subject is The Teaching of Geography (1887). His Scottish Reminiscences (1904) and Landscape in History-and other Essays (1905) are charmingly written and full of instruction.
Archibald Geikie was the founder and director of Geological Survey of Scotland, his works became evident contribution to the doctrines and educational programm of the Edinburgh school.
Archibald Geikie received the honour of knighthood in 1891. He also received the Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 1907 and the Order of Merit in 1914. In 1905 he won the RSGS Livingstone Medal.
Archibald Geikie was married to Alice Gabrielle Anne Marie Pignatel, daughter of Eugene Pignatel of Lyons, they had a son Roderick (killed in early life) and three daughters.
