Thomas Croxen Archer

Thomas Croxen Archer FRSE FSA FRSSA (1817 – 19 February 1885) was a British botanist, and the first Director of the National Museum of Scotland, a post he held from 1864 until his death in 1885.

Thomas Croxen Archer was born in 1817 in Hardingstone in Northamptonshire.

From 1842-1856, he worked as a customs officer in Liverpool. He studied botany at the medical school in Liverpool and at Queen's College there, and went on to be Professor of Botany at the college.

Archer was Superintendent and then Director of the Industrial Museum of Scotland, from 1860-1864.

He was the first Director of the National Museum of Scotland, a post he held from 1864 until his death in 1885.

He was a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts from 1861 (and its President in 1874), the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

On 27 December 1841, he married Mary Eleanor Salmon at St. Paul's, Deptford, London.

In 1861, he was living at 46 Gilmore Place, with his wife Mary Eleanor Archer, seven children and two other people.

In 1881, he was living at 5 West Newington Terrace, with two of his children and five other people.