Il obtient son titre de docteur en médecine en 1844 à Dublin. Il est colonial Treasurer au Cap de 1836 à 1842 où il récolte de nombreux spécimens végétaux. En 1844, il devient le conservateur de l’herbier du Trinity College de Dublin, puis, en 1848, professeur de botanique à la Royal Dublin Society, puis, en 1856, au Trinity College. De 1854 à 1856, il voyage à Ceylan, dans l’ouest de l’Australie, en Tasmanie... Il devient membre de la Linnean Society of London en 1857 et de la Royal Society en 1858. Il s’intéresse particulièrement aux algues marines. Harvey est un opposant à la théorie de l’évolution proposée par Charles Darwin. William Henry Harvey est devenu membre de la Royal Society le .
Couverture de Nereis Boraeli-Americana or Contributions to a History of the Marine Algæ of North America (1853).
1833. Div.II. Confervoideae. Div.III. Gloiocladeae. In, Hooker, W.J. (Ed.) The English flora of Sir James Edward Smith5. London.
1834. Algologhical illustrations. No. 1 Remarks on some British algae and descriptions of a new species recently added to our flora. J. Bot., Hooker1: 296 - 305.
1838. The genera of South African plants. Cape Topwn, 429 pp.
Description of Ballia, a new genus of Algae. - Hooker's Journ. Bot.' Bd 2
1844. Description of a minute alga from the coast of Ireland. Annals and Magagazine of Natural History.14: 27 - 28.
1844. Description of a new British species of Callithamnion (C. pollexfenii)Annals and Magagazine of Natural History.14: 109 - 131.
1844. Algae of Tasmania, J. of Bot., London, 3:428 - 454.
1850. Observations on the Marine Flora of the Atlantic States. Proc. Am. Assn. Adv. Sci., p.79 - 80.
1851. Nereis Boreali-Americana:... Part I.- Melanospermaea. Smithsonian Institution.
1853. Nereis Boreali-Americana:... Part II.- Rhodospermeae.
1855. Some account of the marine botany of the colony of Western Australia. Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy,22: 525-566.
1855. Algae. In J.D.Hooker, The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage 2: Flora Nova-Zelandiae II. London, 211 - 266, pl. 107 - 121.
1857. Nereis Boreali-Americana:... Part III.- Chlorospermeae.
1857. Short description of some new British algae, with two plates. Nat. Hist. Rev.4: 201 - 204.
1858. List of Arctic Algae, Chiefly Compiled from Collections Brought Home by Officers of the Recent Searching Expeditiions. Smithsonian Contrib. to Knowledge. Part III, Supl. 2: 132 - 134.
1860. Algae. Pages 242 - 383, pl.185- 196 in: The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage, Part III. Flora Tasmaniae. Vol. 2 (Ed. by J.D. Hooker) L.Reeve, London.
1862. Phycologia Australica. Vol 4, Pl. 181-240. London.
1862. Notice of a collection of algae made on the northwest coast of North America, chiefly at Vancouver's Island, by David Lyall, Esq., M.D., R.N., in the years 1859 - 1861. J. Linn. Soc. Bot.6: 157 - 177.
(en) Ray Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters and Garden Designers, Londres, Taylor & Francis and The Natural History Museum, .
