| Code | PX3470 |
| Dates | 1788-1854 |
| Person Name | Sowerby; George Brettingham (1788-1854); Conchologist; natural history dealer; scientific illustrator |
| Surname | Sowerby |
| Forenames | George Brettingham |
| Epithet | Conchologist; natural history dealer; scientific illustrator |
| Activity | Conchologist, natural history dealer, scientific illustrator and publisher. Educated at home and trained within the Sowerby family's natural history publishing business, contributing to The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain from an early age. Established an independent business dealing in shells, minerals and fossils in Covent Garden and became one of Britain's leading conchologists. Published over fifty works on molluscs and shell collections, beginning with the Catalogue of the Shells in the Tankerville Collection (1825), and completed The Genera of Recent and Fossil Shells following his father's death. Founded the Malacological and Conchological Magazine and contributed to the Zoological Journal and other natural history periodicals. Collaborated with Hugh Cuming and described and illustrated molluscs collected during major nineteenth-century scientific expeditions. Produced numerous illustrations represented within the Sowerby Archive. Fellow of the Linnean Society (1811). |
| Relationships | Second son of James Sowerby and Anne Sowerby (née Brettingham De Carle); younger brother of James De Carle Sowerby. Married Elizabeth Meredith in 1811; father of George Brettingham Sowerby II and Henry Sowerby. Collaborated with James De Carle Sowerby and George Brettingham Sowerby II on the continuation of the Sowerby family's natural history publications. |
| Source | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; The Sowerby Saga (1952). |