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William Smith
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geologist credited with the first nationwide map (1769-1839)
OverviewAI-generated
William Smith was a British geologist, paleontologist, and civil engineer who worked in the fields of geology, cartography, and land improvement. Born in Churchill in 1769, he held citizenship in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He resided in England and spoke English. Smith was detained at Fleet Prison during his life. He received the Wollaston Medal for his contributions.
Smith had a student named John Phillips. He died in Northampton in 1839. His work has been described in sources including the Nordisk familjebok and the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, OpenAlex, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Crossref, Last.fm, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1769-03-23 ) 23 March 1769, Churchill, Oxfordshire , England
- Died
- 28 August 1839 (1839-08-28) (aged 70), Northampton , England
- Known for
- Geological map of England and Wales
- Awards
- Wollaston Medal (1831)
- Fields
- Geology
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- William
- Family name
- Smith
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Place of birth
- Churchill
- Place of death
- Northampton
- Occupation
- engineer
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Award
- Wollaston Medal
- Field of work
- land improvement
- Image
- William Smith (geologist).jpg
- Residence
- England
Show 8 more facts
- Commons category
- William Smith (geologist)
- date of birth
- 1769-01-01
- date of death
- 1839-01-01
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
- place of detention
- Fleet Prison
- student
- John Phillips
- name in native language
- William Smith
- writing language
- English language
via Wikidata · CC0
~16 min read
Encyclopedic overview
William 'Strata' Smith (23 March 1769 – 28 August 1839) was an English geologist, credited with creating the first detailed, nationwide geological map of any country. At the time his map was first published he was overlooked by the scientific community; his relatively humble education and family connections prevented him from mixing easily in learned society. Financially ruined, Smith spent time in debtors' prison. It was only late in his life that Smith received recognition for his accomplishments, and became known as the "father of English geology".
Early life
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “William Smith” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.