{{short description|Irish paleozoologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Alexander Carte |image = |image_size = |caption = |birth_date = 11 August 1805 |birth_place = Newcastle West, County Limerick |death_date = {{death date and age|1881|09|25|1805|8|11|df=yes}} |death_place = Dublin |residence = |citizenship = |ethnicity = |field = zoology and paleontology |work_institutions = |alma_mater = |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = Directorship of the Natural History Museum, Dublin |author_abbrev_bot = |author_abbrev_zoo = |influences = |influenced = |prizes = |religion = |footnotes = |signature = }}
'''Alexander Carte''' MD, FRCSI, MRIA (11 August 1805 – 25 September 1881) was an Irish zoologist and palaeontologist and was first director Natural History Museum, Dublin.<ref name=Byrne>{{cite book|last1=Byrne|first1=Patricia M.|editor1-last=McGuire|editor1-first=James|editor2-last=Quinn|editor2-first=James|title=Dictionary of Irish Biography|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|chapter=Carte, Alexander}}</ref>
==Early life== Alexander Carte was born 11 August 1805 to Edward and Margaret Carte (née Elliot), in Newcastle West, County Limerick, the couple's only son.<ref name=Byrne /> Edward Carte was an agent for the Devon estates in County Limerick. Carte began his education at Mr O'Brien's Academy, Limerick, then entering the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1823.<ref name=Byrne /> His education progressed, attaining a BA in 1830, MA in 1833, MB in 1840, and finally an MD in 1860.<ref name=Byrne /><ref name=Praeger /> Carte obtained a licence from the RCSI, and became a fellow in 1844, although he never engaged in general practice.<ref name=Byrne /> Carte married Ellen Dickson circa 1829, living at 14 Northbrook Road, Leeson Park, Dublin, with whom he had no children.<ref name=Byrne />
==Museum career== Carte was appointed curator of the RCSI Museum in 1846, overseeing a collections of primarily anatomical specimens, instigating many improvements to the museum and its collections.<ref name=Byrne /> He then went on to become the director of the Royal Dublin Society Museum in 1851.<ref name="Library Ireland">{{cite web|title=The National Museum of Science and Art|url=http://www.libraryireland.com/irishartists/national-museum-science-and-art.php|website=Library Ireland|accessdate=7 May 2015}}</ref> Carte systematically overhauled the museum's collections, cataloguing, naming and allocating all exhibits into organised groups.<ref name="O'Riordan" /> During this reorganisation Carte also solicited new acquisitions for the Museum<ref>{{cite journal|last1=O'Riordan|first1=C.E.|last2=O'Connor|first2=J.P.|last3=Holmes|first3=J.M.C.|title=Natural History in the National Museum of Ireland: Part 1|journal=Biology Curators' Group Newsletter|date=1981|volume=3|issue=1|page=39}}</ref> from prominent figures such as Sir Richard Griffith, Sir William Wilde, Andrew Leith Adams, Edward Percival Wright, William Andrews, and Captain Sir Francis Leopold McClintock.<ref name=Bourke>{{cite book|last1=Bourke|first1=Marie|title=The Story of Irish Museums 1790-2000: Culture, Identity and Education|date=2011|publisher=Cork University Press|location=Cork}}</ref> Between 1851 and 1861, a large number of donations were made to the museum, most notably a collection of over 2500 bird skins.<ref name="O'Riordan">{{cite book|last1=O'Riordan|first1=C.E.|title=The Natural History Museum, Dublin|date=1983|publisher=The Stationery Office|location=Dublin}}</ref>
During his time as director, Carte oversaw the construction of a purpose-built museum building for the Society's expanding collections, which opened in 1857.<ref name="National Museum of Ireland">{{cite web|title=Natural History - History and Architecture|url=http://www.museum.ie/en/list/history-and-architecture-natural-history.aspx|website=National Museum of Ireland|accessdate=7 May 2015|archive-date=14 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714124456/http://www.museum.ie/en/list/history-and-architecture-natural-history.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> When the Museum became part of the new Museum of Science and Art Dublin under the Department of Science and Art London in South Kensington in 1878 following an 1877 act, Carte became the Natural History Museum's first director.<ref name=Praeger>{{cite web|last=Praeger|first=R. Lloyd|title=Some Irish Naturalists: A Biographical Note|url=http://www.botanicgardens.ie/herb/books/inltos.htm|publisher=National Botanic Gardens|accessdate=7 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123081153/http://www.botanicgardens.ie/herb/books/inltos.htm|archive-date=23 January 2015|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Carte's work on the organisation of the Museum, grouping animals taxonomically,<ref name="O'Riordan" /> can still be seen in the Museum today.<ref name=Byrne /> In the period following, Carte oversaw the purchase of a large collection of marine specimens from Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and over 500 glass models of marine animals from Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.<ref name="O'Riordan" />
Apart from his museum work, Carte sat on the council of the RCSI for many years, and was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, the Linnean Society, and the Imperial Botanical and Zoological Society, Vienna.<ref name=Byrne /> Carte had a keen interest in paleontology and the cave systems of Ireland. He published in the Royal Dublin Society Journal and the Geological Society of Dublin Journal on subjects from comparative anatomy to the possible existence of the polar bear in Ireland in the past.<ref name=Byrne /> He published with William Hellier Baily naming a new species of plesiosaur, Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wyse Jackson|first1=Patrick|last2=Parkes|first2=Matthew|title=William Hellier Baily (1819-1888): Forever an Acting Palaeontologist with the Geological Survey of Ireland|journal=Geological Curator|date=2009|volume=9|issue=2|pages=57–84|doi=10.55468/GC210 }}</ref> A fossil giant dormouse from Malta, Myoxus cartei adams, was named in Carte's honour by Andrew Leith Adams in 1863.
Carte died 25 September 1881, and was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery in the family vault.<ref name=Byrne /> He was succeeded in the Museum by Alexander Goodman More.<ref name="O'Riordan" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Carte, Alexander}} Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Category:Burials at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium Category:19th-century Irish zoologists Category:Members of the Royal Irish Academy Category:People associated with the National Museum of Ireland Category:Scientists from County Limerick Category:1805 births Category:1881 deaths