Thomas Say

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Thomas Say by Charles Willson Peale (1818)

Thomas Say (born June 27, 1787 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ; ∞ January 4, 1827 Lucy Way Sistare (1801-1886) in New Harmony , Indiana ; † October 10, 1834 there ) is regarded by many as the father of American entomology . He was the first American entomologist and a scientist in the fields of malacology (molluscology) and crustaceology (studies the crustaceans ).

Life

He was the great grandson of the co-founder of the American Philosophical Society , John Bartram (1699–1777), and the great-nephew of William Bartram (1739–1823). The whole family consisted of members of a Quaker sect. Say's statement that he was a member of the Society of Friends , a Quaker sect, resulted in his expulsion from school. He then went to the Friends' Academy of Weston , a few miles outside of Philadelphia. Later he helped his father Benjamin Say (1755-1813), a respected doctor and pharmacist and later congressman , in the pharmacy and collected bugs and butterflies . Although he was more interested in natural history, his father moved him to continue his pharmacy.

The first American natural history museum was established in Philadelphia. Thousands of insects and other animals are exhibited there, as well as Benjamin Franklin's (1706–1790) Angora cat and one of the golden pheasants of former US President George Washington (1732–1799). Say was very interested in this museum and spent a lot of his free time there.

In 1812 the pharmacy went bankrupt and Say devoted the rest of his life to his true love, natural history. Since he co-founded the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1812 , he has been a member of its charter. There he was appointed curator of the library and collections; no big task, because at that time the number of exhibits was less than ten domestic insects , some corals and mussels , a dried representative of the frogfish (Batrachoididae) and a monkey preserved by stuffing . In 1817 he became a member of the American Philosophical Society.

In 1821 Say was hired as a curator at the American Philosophical Society for six years. From 1822 to 1828 he served as a professor of natural history at the University of Pennsylvania . Later, he left Philadelphia for ever and entered that of Robert Owen founded (1771-1858) and William Maclure Boatload of Knowledge (dt .: a boatload of knowledge ) at that on a cargo boat in New Harmony in the Wabash River was established and a team of Scientists. He also became a member of the Utopian Community of Rappites , a German religious sect that developed there. Say secretly married Lucy Way Sistare, a draftsman and illustrator of Conchology and first female member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, in New Harmony in 1827, and spent his old age there. However, the climate on the Wabash River was very bad for his health, he got weak stomach muscles and suffered dysentery . He was advised to return to his better air-conditioned homeland, but he did not want to give up the friendships he had made in New Harmony and stayed where he died of typhus at the age of 47 .

Research trips

Say undertook early 1818 with the President of the Academy of Natural Sciences, William Maclure (1763-1840) and two other colleagues, Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) and George Ord (1781-1866), a research trip to the Sea Islands of Georgia as far as East Florida , primarily to collect other species ; However, this ended abruptly when Indians attacked him.

Then he was invited as a zoologist and botanist to Major Stephen Harriman Longs (1784–1864) 18-month scientific expedition to the Louisiana colony, which was acquired by France in 1803 . The trip went from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains in 1819/20 , Say learned a lot about Indians and the fauna along the way. One of the insects that Say described on this expedition was the Colorado potato beetle ( Leptinotarsa ​​decemlineata ), which originally came from America and has now spread around the world. Despite its success, this trip also paid its tribute: exhausted and half-starved, the research group came back with only a few horses left, many of the travel diaries were stolen from deserters by Say. As chief zoologist, Major Long invited him on a second expedition in 1823, this time to the origin of the Mississippi, Lake Itasca .

Initial descriptions

Thomas Say is the first person to describe the ark mussel Noetia ponderosa SAY 1822.

Publications

Papilio glaucus by Thomas Say in American Entomology

Say described over 1500 species of insects. In 1816/17 he brought the Conchology manuscript . found out that the American edition of William Nicholsons (1753–1815) British encyclopedia. enclosed. It was the first writing by an American author on domestic shellfish . Say published a three-volume work on American entomology, American entomology or Descriptions of the insects of North America, in 1824-28.

Fonts

  • Oeuvres entomologiques de Th. Say. Lequien fils, Paris 1837 pm
  • Descriptions of new species of curculionites of North America. New Harmony 1831.
  • American conchology. School Press, New Harmony 1830-38 pm
  • Descriptions of new species of North American insects. New Harmony 1829-33.
  • A glossary to Say's Entomology. Mitchell, Philadelphia 1825.
  • American entomology or Descriptions of the insects of North America. Mitchell, Philadelphia 1824-28.
  • American entomology or Descriptions of the insects of North America ... Mitchell & Ames, Philadelphia 1817. (preliminary)
  • Collaboration in: E. James: Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the years 1819, 1820, by order of the Hon. JC Calhoun, Secretary of War, under the command of Major Stephen H. Long. Vol. 2. and 3, HC Carey & I. Lea, Philadelphia 1823.

bibliography

  • Claus Nissen: The zoological book illustration. Your bibliography and history. Volume I: Bibliography . Anton Hiersemann Verlag Stuttgart 1969, pp. 361-362 and 460 (2nd column).

biography

  • Benjamin Hornor Coates: A Biographical Sketch of the late Thomas Say, Esq. Philadelphia 1835.
  • Patricia Tyson Stroud: Thomas Say. Philadelphia 1992, ISBN 0-8122-3103-1 .
  • Harry Bischoff Weiss, Grace M. Ziegler: Thomas Say. Thomas, Springfield, Baltimore 1931, ISBN 0-405-10641-6 , ISBN 0-405-10737-4 .

Web links

Commons : Thomas Say  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Say, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entomologist, conchologist, and carcinologist (zoology)
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1787
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1834
Place of death New Harmony , Indiana