Carl H. Eigenmann

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Carl H. Eigenmann

Carl Henry Eigenmann (born March 9, 1863 in Flehingen , Oberderdingen ; † April 24, 1927 in San Diego ) was a famous German-American ichthyologist who, together with his wife Rosa Smith Eigenmann, collected several hundred fish species, primarily from northern and northern Germany Described South America for the first time, some of which were named after him.

Eigenmann immigrated to Rockport, Indiana with his parents when he was 14 years old. After just a few years, he enrolled at Indiana University , where he studied biology under David Starr Jordan . Eigenmann obtained a bachelor's degree in 1886 and shortly afterwards went to California , where he made the acquaintance of Rosa Smith, who had already gained some notoriety through her work on the fish of the west coast. They married on August 20, 1887 and went to Harvard University together , where they studied the collections of Louis Agassiz and Franz Steindachner and wrote their first joint works.

In 1888 the couple went to San Diego, California, where Carl worked as the curator of a natural history society and helped found the San Diego Biological Laboratory . In 1889 he received his doctorate in Indiana and took a professorship in zoology there in 1891 . A year later, Albert Günther financed Carl Eigenmann's first expedition to Northwest America, where he collected a large number of previously unknown species of fish. This was followed by several expeditions to cave fish and salamanders in the caves in Indiana , Texas , Missouri and Cuba .

After Eigenmann had been a visiting professor at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in 1906/07 , he became dean of the college for postgraduate studies in Indiana in 1908 . In the same year he secured the support of a research trip to South America from the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh and set out on the Carnegie British Guiana Expedition in September 1908 . It returned with 25,000 specimens, which later formed the basis for 128 new species and 28 new genera . He made further trips to Colombia (1912) and the Andes (1918). His wife Rosa worked closely with him during the years in Indiana, but was unable to continue working with him because of their five children, one of whom was disabled and one of whom may have been raised in a home.

Later Carl Eigenmann wrote mainly reports about his expeditions and supported younger colleagues in planning and conducting their own research trips. In 1917 he was accepted into the American Philosophical Society and in 1923 the National Academy of Sciences .

After suffering a stroke in 1927, the family returned to San Diego.

In 1970, a newly built student dormitory on the Indiana University campus was named after Carl H. Eigenmann.

Literature selection

  • The leptocephalus of the American eel and other American Leptocephali, CH Eigenmann et al., 1902
  • The Freshwater Fishes of British Guiana, including a study of the ecological grouping of species, and the relation of the fauna of the plateau of hat of the lowlands, CH Eigenmann, 1912
  • On Apareiodon, a new genus of characid fishes, 1916
  • The fishes of Western South America. Part I, CH Eigenmann, 1922

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Member History: Carl H. Eigenmann. American Philosophical Society, accessed July 27, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Eigenmann, Carl H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eigenmann, Carl Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American biologist, ichthyologist and herpetologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Supplication
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1927
Place of death San Diego