George Ord

George Ord (1781–1866)

George Ord (born March 4, 1781 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ; ⚭ 1804 Margaret Biays , † January 24, 1866 ibid) was an American scientist and ornithologist .

Life

Born in 1781 as the son of the rope maker and sea captain George Ord († 1806) and Rebecca Lindemeyer , Ord studied science and literature at an early age . He began his professional career in his father's business, which he supported from 1800 until his father's death. In 1804 he married Margaret Biays († 1806), the daughter of the rope maker and shipbuilder Joseph Biays from Baltimore . When she died, she left him three children, one of whom only grew up, the painter Joseph Biays Ord (1805–1865). His second wife, about whom little is known, repeatedly struggled with mental health problems. Ord finally retired completely from business in 1829 to devote more time to science. He was particularly interested in birds and mammals , and words fascinated him in a philological sense.

Ord became a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1815 . There he occupied several important positions. He was secretary, librarian, treasurer, chancellor and vice president. From 1851 to 1858 he held the post of President. From 1817 he was also a member of the American Philosophical Society . Ord received some animal species from the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06) for description, including the grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos horribilis ) and the pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana ).

Ord was a friend and colleague of the Scottish poet and scientist Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), whom he accompanied on some of his trips. After Wilson's death, Ord completed the eighth and ninth volumes of Wilson's American Ornithology (1808-32). In 1828 Ord wrote a biography of Wilson. Furthermore, he later published biographies of natural scientists such as Thomas Say (1787–1834) and Charles-Alexandre Le Sueur (1778–1846). He also assisted in the expansion of Samuel Johnson's (1709–1784) Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and in the first edition of Noah Websters (1758–1843) An American Dictionary of the English Language (1842). However, he was not good to speak of John James La Forest Audubon (1785-1851) because he did not like his drawings, and Audubon tried to usurp the position of Wilson.

George Ord died on January 24, 1866 and was buried next to Wilson in the cemetery of Gloria Dei Church in Philadelphia .

Works

• Sketch of the Life of Alexander Wilson, author of the American Ornithology. Hall, Philadelphia 1828.

literature

• Robert McCracken Peck: George Ord. In: Vol. 16, American National Biography. New York, 1999.