biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1787–1834)
|
| biography:
| Entomologist and conchologist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He attended Quaker schools, but expanded his childhood interest in natural history by self-teaching. After helping to found the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences (1812), he was appointed zoologist for Major Stephen H Long's expeditions to the Rocky Mts (1819) and the sources of the Minnesota R (1823). He became curator of the American Philosophical Society (1821–7), then professor of natural history at the University of Pennsylvania (1822–8). He was so inspired by utopologist Robert Owen that he went to Owen's ‘ideal community’ in New Harmony, IN (1825). Although this social experiment failed, he remained in New Harmony for the rest of his life after leaving his professorship. His exclusively descriptive and taxonomic scientific works include many books and professional articles on American insects, birds, and shells. Considered the father of descriptive entomology in America, his two major works were American Entomology (3 vols, 1817–28) and American Conchology (1830–4). |
|
|
