Nevil Story Maskelyne

Mervyn Herbert Nevil Story Maskelyne, known as Nevil Story Maskelyne, was an English mineralogist and geologist born September 3, 1823, at Basset Down House, Wroughton, Wiltshire, England, who died May 20, 1911, at the same house, and who became a pioneer in the classification and cataloguing of meteorites while also contributing to the early development of scientific photography alongside William Henry Fox Talbot. He taught mineralogy and chemistry at Oxford from 1851, held the professorship of mineralogy there from 1856 to 1895, and served as Keeper of Minerals at the British Museum from 1857 to 1880, publishing a treatise on crystal morphology in 1895; the mineral maskelynite is named in his honor. He also served as a Member of Parliament for Cricklade from 1880 to 1892, first as a Liberal and later as a Liberal Unionist, sat on Wiltshire County Council from 1889 to 1904, and received the Wollaston Medal in 1893.