Abbott, Charles Conrad (04 June 1843–27 July 1919), naturalist and archaeologist, was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Timothy Abbott, a banker, and Susan Conrad. As a child he loved nature and began a lifelong fascination with the flora and fauna of the Delaware River Valley. Like many young men drawn to natural history, he saw no prospects for turning his passion into a livelihood and so chose to study medicine....
12
Article
Abbott, Charles Conrad (1843-1919), naturalist and archaeologist
Michael J. Brodhead
Article
Beadle, George Wells (1903-1989), geneticist and university president
Richard M. Burian
Beadle, George Wells (22 October 1903–09 June 1989), geneticist and university president, was the son of Hattie Albro and Chauncey Elmer Beadle, farmers near Wahoo, Nebraska. He was raised on a small farm that was noteworthy for its sound agricultural practices. After the early death of his mother and the accidental death of an older brother, it was assumed that he would take over the farm. Instead, thanks to the beneficent influence of Bess MacDonald, a high school teacher, he went to college. Further encouraged by the mentoring of Franklin D. Keim, an agronomy professor at the Nebraska College of Agriculture, Beadle entered graduate school at Cornell University in 1927 to pursue a career in biology....
Image
Beadle, George Wells (1903-1989)
In
George Wells Beadle. Courtesy of the Clendening History of Medicine Library, University of Kansas Medical Center.
Article
Coues, Elliott (1842-1899), naturalist and historian
Michael J. Brodhead
Coues, Elliott (09 September 1842–25 December 1899), naturalist and historian, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the son of Samuel Elliott Coues and Charlotte Haven Ladd. His father, a prominent peace advocate, received a position in the U.S. Patent Office and moved the family to Washington, D.C., in 1854. There, under the tutelage of ...
Image
Coues, Elliott (1842-1899)
In
Elliott Coues Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-43487).
Article
Dixon, Roland Burrage (1875-1934), anthropologist and natural historian
Stephen O. Murray
Dixon, Roland Burrage (06 November 1875–19 December 1934), anthropologist and natural historian, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of Louis Seaver Dixon, a physician, and Ellen R. Burrage. Appointed an assistant at the Peabody Museum after graduating from Harvard in 1897, he engaged in the archaeological excavation of burial mounds in Madisonville, Ohio. After earning his M.A. in 1898, he joined the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, doing fieldwork in British Columbia and Alaska. He was also a member of the Huntington Expedition in California in 1899. His 1900 Harvard doctoral dissertation dealt with the language of the Maidu Indians of California. It was included by its de facto supervisor, Columbia anthropologist ...
Article
Elvehjem, Conrad Arnold (1901-1962), biochemist and university administrator
Patricia Dwyer-Hallquist
Elvehjem, Conrad Arnold (27 May 1901–27 July 1962), biochemist and university administrator, was born near McFarland, Wisconsin, the son of Ole Johnson Elvehjem and Christine Lewis, farmers. Growing up on a farm gave Elvehjem a lifelong interest in understanding living things, which he pursued as a researcher in biochemistry and nutrition. His interest in vitamins started as a child, when he read a magazine article about the research done by early pioneers in nutrition including ...
Article
Haldeman, Samuel Stehman (1812-1880), naturalist and philologist
W. Conner Sorensen
Haldeman, Samuel Stehman (12 August 1812–10 September 1880), naturalist and philologist, was born at Locust Grove, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of Henry Haldeman, a businessman, and Frances Stehman (her name and Samuel’s middle name are sometimes spelled Steman or Stedman). Haldeman’s Swiss ancestors had acquired considerable property in the Susquehanna Valley and had occupied positions of prestige in Pennsylvania. His grandfather John B. Haldeman had been elected to the general assembly of Pennsylvania, and his great-great-grandfather Jacob Haldeman had been a member of the colony’s Committee of Safety during the Revolution. His great-grand-uncle Sir Frederick Haldimand had served as commander in chief of the British forces in Canada....
Article
Hildreth, Samuel Prescott (1783-1863), physician, naturalist, and historian
Keith L. Miller
Hildreth, Samuel Prescott (30 September 1783–24 July 1863), physician, naturalist, and historian, was born in Methuen, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Hildreth, a physician and farmer, and Abigail Bodwell. At age fifteen he entered Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; he spent four terms at Andover and Franklin academies. He studied medicine first under his father and then for two years under Thomas Kittredge of Andover. To complete his education, he attended an eight-week course at Harvard Medical School, after which he received a diploma from the Medical Society of Massachusetts in 1805....
Article
Jordan, David Starr (1851-1931), naturalist and educator
Roger L. Geiger
Jordan, David Starr (19 January 1851–19 September 1931), naturalist and educator, was born in Gainesville, New York, the son of Hiram Jordan and Huldah Hawley, farmers. Jordan obtained his secondary education in the Gainesville Female Seminary (1865) and then briefly became a primary teacher (1868). A county scholarship permitted his belated entry to the initial class at Cornell University. To support himself, he became an instructor in biology in his junior year and completed sufficient work to be granted a master of science degree after less than four years of study (1872)....
Image
Jordan, David Starr (1851-1931)
In
David Starr Jordan Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-111666 ).
Article
Keeler, Clyde Edgar (1900-1994), biologist, educator, and cultural historian
Irmgard Keeler Howard
Keeler, Clyde Edgar (11 April 1900–22 April 1994), biologist, educator, and cultural historian, was born in Marion, Ohio, the son of Anthony Sylvester Keeler, a watchmaker and teacher, and Amanda Jane Dumm Keeler, a teacher. Growing up in Marion, with nearby farmlands, Keeler had early opportunities—on his milk and paper routes—to observe nature, and he attributed the launching of his biomedical career to childhood observations of field mice. Keeler graduated from Denison University (Granville, Ohio) in 1923 with a zoology major and enough credits for a master’s degree; he lacked only the research component, which he completed in 1925 at Harvard. Cited as “the school artist” in the yearbook, he was Phi Beta Kappa, president of the Zoology Club, and captain of the cross country team. He was also a member of the Student Army Training Corps (for World War I) and, after the war, the Reserve Officers Training Corps; he eventually rose to the rank of major in the U.S. Army Officers Reserve Corps....
Article
Krause, Herbert Arthur (1905-1976), novelist, English professor, poet, and naturalist
Arthur R. Huseboe
Krause, Herbert Arthur (25 May 1905–22 September 1976), novelist, English professor, poet, and naturalist, was born near Friberg, Minnesota, the son of Arthur Krause, a farmer and blacksmith, and Bertha Peters. Krause’s parents were first-generation descendants of devout German immigrants who settled as farmers in the hill country north of Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Their folkways and fundamentalist Lutheran religion were important concerns in his first two novels....
Article
Little, Clarence Cook (1888-1971), scientist and educator
Karen Rader
Little, Clarence Cook (06 October 1888–22 December 1971), scientist and educator, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of James Lovell Little, a Boston merchant, and Mary Robbins Revere. Little enrolled at Harvard University in 1906 to study zoology. He obtained a B.A. in 1910 with Phi Beta Kappa honors, and took a masters degree (M.S., 1912) and a doctorate (Sc.D., 1914) in the same subject under ...
Article
McCrady, Edward (1906-1981), biologist and university president
Arthur Ben Chitty
McCrady, Edward (19 September 1906–27 July 1981), biologist and university president, was born in Canton, Mississippi, the son of Edward McCrady, an Episcopal priest, and Mary Ormond Tucker. Descended from an old South Carolina family distinguished in law, politics, religion, and science, McCrady graduated with a degree in classics from the College of Charleston in 1927. In 1928 he joined the staff of the Highlands Art Museum (N.C.) after the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston sent him to do graduate work in Japanese at Columbia University. Though tempted to study both theology and medicine, he switched to biology for his master’s degree, which he received from the University of Pittsburgh in 1930. That same year he married Edith May Dowling, whom he had met during his summer studies at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. They had four children....
Article
Morse, Edward Sylvester (1838-1925), biologist and expert on Japanese culture
Elizabeth Noble Shor
Morse, Edward Sylvester (18 June 1838–20 December 1925), biologist and expert on Japanese culture, was born in Portland, Maine, the son of Jonathan Kimball Morse and Jane Seymour Beckett. His father was a partner in a firm that dealt in beaver furs and buffalo robes, and his mother was said to be “interested in all branches of science.” As a boy Morse collected shells, and at the age of seventeen he joined the Portland Society of Natural History. At the encouragement of other naturalists in the society, Morse began to study the land snails of his state and to correspond with leading American conchologists. After attending preparatory schools he worked as a draftsman in the locomotive shops of the Maine Central Railroad, presumably to save for college. There he demonstrated a fine ability in sketching and creating line drawings, which he used to advantage in his later publications....
Article
Ord, George (1781-1866), naturalist, writer, and lexicographer
Robert McCracken Peck
Ord, George (04 March 1781–24 January 1866), naturalist, writer, and lexicographer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of George Ord, a retired sea captain who in 1798 became a ship chandler and rope maker, and Rebecca Lindemeyer. Educated in Philadelphia, Ord devoted himself from an early age to the study of science and literature. He entered his father’s rope-making business in 1800 and continued the business after his father’s death in 1806; he retired from the business in 1829 to devote more time to his avocational interests. In 1804 Ord married Margarette Biays, with whom he had three children, only one of whom survived infancy....
Article
Putnam, Frederic Ward (1839-1915), anthropologist, naturalist, and museologist
Terry A. Barnhart
Putnam, Frederic Ward (16 April 1839–14 August 1915), anthropologist, naturalist, and museologist, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Ebenezer Putnam and Elizabeth Appleton. His early years were devoted to the study of natural history on his own, beginning with a serious interest in the study of birds. Remarkably, he became a curator of ornithology at the Essex Institute in Salem in 1856 at age seventeen. That same year Putnam entered the Lawrence Scientific Schools at Harvard University. There he was a pupil and an assistant of the eminent naturalist ...
Article
Richter, Curt Paul (1894-1988), psychobiologist and educator
Donald A. Dewsbury
Richter, Curt Paul (20 February 1894–21 December 1988), psychobiologist and educator, was born in Denver, Colorado, the son of Paul Ernst Richter, an engineer and iron and steel firm owner, and Martha Dressler. After completing his high school education in Denver, Richter studied engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden, Germany, from 1912 to 1915. When his stay in Germany was interrupted by World War I, he attended Harvard University and graduated with a B.S. in 1917. There, he was introduced to behavioral psychology by ...
Article
Ritter, William Emerson (1856-1944), naturalist, philosopher, and administrator
Jerome A. Jackson
Ritter, William Emerson (19 November 1856–10 January 1944), naturalist, philosopher, and administrator, was born in Hampden, Wisconsin, the son of Horatio Emerson and Leonora Eason, farmers. He spent most of his boyhood on the farm, where he gained an early love of nature. Ritter attended local public schools and began teaching in Wisconsin public schools in 1877. He graduated from the State Normal School in Oshkosh, Wisconsin (1884), then served as principal of the Oconto, Wisconsin, high school (1884–1885), before continuing his education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a B.S. (1888). At Berkeley, Ritter studied under the geologist ...
12
