Charles Conrad Abbott

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Charles Conrad Abbott

Charles Conrad Abbott (born June 4, 1843 in Trenton , New Jersey , † July 27, 1919 in Bristol , Pennsylvania ) was an American archaeologist and naturalist .

Life

Charles Conrad Abbott's parents, Timothy Abbott and Susan Conrad, both came from Quaker families , but later left that religious community. Towards the end of the 17th century, his ancestors on his father's side had immigrated from England and those on his mother's side from Germany to what would later become the United States. His father, Timothy Abbott, was a banker by profession. His maternal grandfather, Solomon White Conrad, was an eminent botanist and mineralogist .

Abbott, who had three siblings, attended Trenton Academy from 1852 to 1858 . At an early age he was interested in exploring the natural surroundings, especially the Delaware River Valley , but fearing that he would have no career prospects in this area, he studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania from 1860 onwards . His higher education was interrupted in 1863 by his deployment in the Civil War , where he was primarily responsible for monitoring bridges along the Susquehanna River . In 1865 he successfully completed his medical studies, but never worked as a doctor afterwards, instead mostly doing archaeological and nature studies in the vicinity of his homeland. His marriage to Julia Boggs Olden in 1867 resulted in a son and two daughters. In 1874 he inherited the family seat "Three Beeches", south of his hometown Trenton. He was rather short in stature and had a mustache.

After Abbott lost his family estate in a fire, he moved to Bristol, Pennsylvania. A few years later he died there in 1919 at the age of 76.

plant

As a naturalist, Abbott made his observations of flora and fauna mainly on his family home. First he came out particularly with contributions to the ornithology of New Jersey. He published numerous popular science books and shorter articles on the investigations of nature that he carried out, which, however, met with skepticism and reservations in the established American scholarly world. He did not want to admit any mistakes of his own, even if individual details of his works were proven to be incorrect. After all, he was a member of various scientific organizations such as the New York Academy of Sciences . For a wider readership, he wrote many articles in magazines such as Popular Science Monthly , Lippincott's Magazine and Science Gossip .

Abbott's work on archeology in the Delaware Valley area , which he began at a young age, found more recognition . During excavations he organized, he found thousands of tools and other evidence of North American cultures of the Paleolithic and Neolithic . From 1875 to 1889 he was an assistant at the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology in Cambridge (Massachusetts) , to which he donated most of his numerous finds. From 1889 to 1893 he was the curator of the Museum of Science and Art at the University of Pennsylvania. His main work on North American archeology is the book Primitive Industry , published in 1881 .

Abbott also wrote several novels and short stories; however, he failed to succeed in this field of literature.

Fonts

  • The Stone Age in New Jersey (1875)
  • Primitive industry; or, Illustrations of the Handiwork, in Stone, Bone and Clay, of the Native Races of the Northern Atlantic Seabord of America (1881)
  • A Naturalist 'Rambles about Home (1884)
  • Upland and Meadow (1886)
  • Waste Land Wanderings (1887)
  • Days out of Doors (1889)
  • Outings at Odd Times (1890)
  • Recent Archaeological Explorations in the Valley of the Delaware (1892)
  • The Birds About Us (1894)
  • Travels in a Tree-Top (1894)
  • A Colonial Wooing (1895; novel)
  • The Freedom of the Field (1898)
  • Clear Skies and Cloudy (1899)
  • In Nature's Realm (1900)
  • The Rambles of an Idler (1906)
  • Archœologia Nova Cœsarea (1907–1909)
  • Ten Years Diggings in Lenape Land, 1901-1911 (1912)

literature