John Willis Clark Explained

John Willis Clark (1833 – 1910), sometimes J. W. Clark, was an English academic and antiquarian.

Academic career

Clark was born into a Cambridge University academic family, and was a nephew of Prof. Robert Willis. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he spent his life at the university, serving as Fellow of Trinity, Superintendent of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology from 1866 to 1892, and Registrary of the university. He was also Secretary of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.

He received the honorary degree Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) from the University of Oxford in October 1902, in connection with the tercentenary of the Bodleian Library.^[1]

Clark died in 1910, and is buried in the Mill Road cemetery, Cambridge.

His son was Sir William Henry Clark.

Works

• Architectural History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge, with Robert Willis, 4 volumes, 1886.
• The Life and Letters of The Reverend Adam Sedgwick (1890) in 2 volumes^[2]
• Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods (1894)
• The observances in use at The Augustinian Priory of S. Giles : and S. Andrew at Barnwell, Cambridgeshire (1897)
• On the Vatican Library of Sixtus IV (1899)
• A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Peterhouse (1899)
• Old friends at Cambridge and elsewhere (1900)
• The Care of Books (1901)^[3]
• Cambridge; a concise guide to the town & university in an introduction and four walks (2nd edition, 1902); (1st edition, 1898)
• Endowments of the University of Cambridge (1904)
• Cambridge (1908)

Contributions to the DNB

• James Burrough
• William Clark
• Nicholas Close
• John Dawson (surgeon) (1734–1820)
• Philip Douglas
• James Essex
• Richard Harraden
• Joseph Jowett
• David Loggan
• Henry Richards Luard
• Isaac Milner
• John Montagu (Trinity) (1655?–1728)
• George Peacock (1791–1858)
• George Phillips (canon lawyer) (1804–1892)
• Robert Plumptre
• Thomas Postlethwaite
• Joseph Power
• George Pryme
• Connop Thirlwall
• William Hepworth Thompson
• Francis Willis
• Robert Willis (engineer) (1800–1875)
• Francis John Hyde Wollaston
• Christopher Wordsworth (1774–1846)

References

• Arthur Shipley, "J": a Memoir of John Willis Clark, 1913.
  • Review of "J": a Memoir of John Willis Clark by A. E. Shipley. The Athenaeum. 26 July 1913. 4473. 77–78.
• John Willis Clark and The Care of Books at the Fitzwilliam Museum
• Clark, John Willis. (1904). Endowments of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge University Press (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009;)
• Clark, John Willis. (1902). The Care of Books. Cambridge University Press (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009;)
• Clark, John Willis. (1901). Specimens of Printing Types and Ornaments. Cambridge University Press (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009;)

Notes and References

1. University intelligence . 8 October 1902 . 4 . 36893.
2. Review of The Life and Letters of Adam Sedgwick by J. Willis Clark and T. McKenny Hughes. The Quarterly Review. 172. January 1891. 96–112.
3. Review of The Care of Books, An Essay on the Development of Libraries and their Fittings by John Willis Clark .... The Quarterly Review. April 1902. 195. 450–465.