William Archer, naturalist, librarian and microscopist especially interested in protozoa and desmids, dies in Dublin on August 14, 1897.

Archer is born in Magherahamlet, County Down, on May 6, 1827 (some sources say 1830), the eldest son of Rev. Richard Archer, vicar of Clonduff, and his wife, Jane Matilda (née Campbell). Nothing is known of his education, although his two younger brothers attend Trinity College Dublin (TCD). He apparently becomes estranged from his family, as he is not mentioned by H. B. Swanzy, who does mention his brothers as second and third sons in Richard Archer’s family.

Archer moves to Dublin around 1846, where for many years he pursues a business career. He achieves fame as a naturalist, founding in 1849 with eleven others, the Dublin Microscopical Club, of which he is the secretary and moving spirit for many years. Between 1858 and 1885 he writes over 230 scientific papers in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, the vast majority being short notes on desmids collected in Ireland.

Archer is a member of the Dublin University Zoological Association. He is elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA) on January 10, 1870 and Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1875, on which occasion it is stated that he has “a knowledge of the minute freshwater organisms unparalleled among British naturalists and perhaps not surpassed for any other country.”

Archer begins a new career when he becomes librarian of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) in January 1877. The bulk of the Society’s library is being taken over by the state to form the National Library of Ireland. He becomes the chief librarian of the new institution and has the task of overseeing the changes. Most of the ideas put forward in his pamphlet, Suggestions as to public library buildings . . . with especial reference to the National Library of Ireland (Dublin, 1881), are used by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane in his design for tthe new building, which opens in August 1890. His adoption of the Dewey system of classification and the inception of a dictionary catalogue, both novel in his day, are to prove of lasting value to users of the library.

In poor health, Archer retires in 1895. He dies, unmarried, at his home, 52 Lower Mount Street, Dublin, on August 14, 1897. Archer is a shy, modest man, who declines professorships at the Royal College of Science for Ireland and at TCD, and who is nominated for membership of the Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Society without his knowledge.