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Megatherium Club
The Megatherium Club was founded by William Stimpson. It was a group of Washington, D.C.-based scientists who were attracted to that city by the Smithsonian Institution's rapidly growing collection, from 1857 to 1866. Many of the members had no formal education, but came by their expertise through extensive direct observation. They spent their weekdays in the rigorous and exacting work of describing and classifying species. But their nights were spent in revelry. They particularly enjoyed partaking in ale, oysters, eggnog, and whatever other fineries their meager budgets could afford. On Sundays, however, they recuperated from the week's stresses and excesses with long nature hiking, hikes. The club was named for the ''Megatherium'', an extinct genus of giant ground sloth. The leading spirit of the club was marine biologist William Stimpson, who hosted its earliest meetings in his home. Members dubbed the place "The Stimpsonian." By 1863, though, Stimpson and others had tak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Kennicott, Henry Ulke, Dr
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown" and ''berht'' "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin. It is also in use Robert (surname), as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert (name), Rupert. After becoming widely used in Continental Europe it entered England in its Old French form ''Robert'', where an Old English cognate form (''Hrēodbēorht'', ''Hrodberht'', ''Hrēodbēorð'', ''Hrœdbœrð'', ''Hrœdberð'', ''Hrōðberχtŕ'') had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta (given name), Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto (given name), Roberto. Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including English ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is a natural history museum located in Chicago, Illinois, and operated by the Chicago Academy of Sciences. The museum traces its history to the founding of the academy in 1857. After a century at a nearby location, the academy opened its present museum named for benefactor Peggy Notebaert in 1999 at the intersection of Fullerton Parkway and Cannon Drive in Lincoln Park. The institution focuses on the natural history of the Chicago region, and offers educational programs for children and adults. It is also known for its live butterfly house, which is attached to a laboratory and program to study and enhance Chicago area butterfly populations. History The Chicago Academy of Sciences had previously been located at Lincoln Park's century-old Matthew Laflin Memorial Building. The academy was founded in 1857 by young prominent American naturalists, such as Robert Kennicott and William Stimpson. It was Chicago's first museum dedicated to nature and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Ulke
Henry Ulke (January 29, 1821 – February 17, 1910) was an American photographer and portrait painter. Biography Henry Ulke was born in Frankenstein in Schlesien, Prussia, and studied painting in Breslau, and also in Berlin under Karl Wilhelm Wach, Wach. For a time he was occupied in decorating the Royal Museum of Berlin, but became involved in the Revolutions of 1848 in Germany, Revolution of 1848, and was compelled to leave his native land. Ulke and his brothers Julian and Lee moved from Germany to the United States in 1852. Ulke worked in New York designing banknotes, then illustrations for Harper's Weekly, Harper's and Frank Leslie's Weekly, Leslie's weeklies in Philadelphia from approximately 1853 to 1860. They settled in Washington, D.C., in 1860, finding residence in the Petersen House (Washington, D.C.), Petersen boarding house at 516 Tenth Street, NW, across the street from Ford's Theater, where President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Strong Newberry
John Strong Newberry (December 22, 1822 – December 7, 1892) was an American physician, geologist and paleontologist. He participated as a naturalist and surgeon on three expeditions to explore and survey the western United States. During the Civil War he served in the US Sanitary Commission and was appointed secretary of the western department of the commission. After the war he became professor of geology and paleontology at Columbia University School of Mines. Biography John Strong Newberry was born in Windsor, Connecticut to Henry and Elizabeth Strong. At the age of two he moved with his family to northeastern Ohio where his father opened a coal mining business. The fossils found in the coal deposits stimulated his interest in science and a visit in 1841 with James Hall, an eminent geologist and paleontologist, furthered his interests. He graduated from Western Reserve College in 1846 and from Cleveland Medical School in 1848. That same year he married Sarah Gaylord an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fielding Bradford Meek
Fielding Bradford Meek (December 10, 1817 – December 22, 1876) was an American geologist and a paleontologist who specialized in the invertebrates. Biography The son of a lawyer, he was born in Madison, Indiana. In early life he was in business as a merchant, but he became deaf and spent his leisure hours were devoted to collecting fossils and studying the rocks of the neighborhood of Madison. Being unsuccessful in business with delicate health he turned his whole attention to science, and in 1848 he gained employment on the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories as an assistant to D. D. Owen in Iowa, and subsequently in Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1852 he became assistant to Professor James Hall at Albany, New York, and worked at palaeontology with him until 1858. He received training in illustration from Frederick Swinton. Meanwhile, in 1853 he accompanied FV Hayden in an exploration of the badlands of Dakota and brought back valu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Kennicott
Robert Kennicott (November 13, 1835 – May 13, 1866) was an American naturalist and herpetologist. Chronic illness kept Kennicott out of school as a child. Instead, Kennicott spent most of his time outdoors, collecting plants and animals. His father schooled him at home and convinced naturalist Jared Potter Kirtland to take him as an understudy. Soon, Kennicott was providing specimens for the Smithsonian Institution via assistant secretary Spencer Fullerton Baird. Kennicott advocated for the study and protection of native prairie animals in an era when farmers sought to eradicate them. He teamed with Northwestern University to found a natural history museum in 1857, then founded the Chicago Academy of Sciences. While in Chicago he served as a mentor to several young naturalists, including William Healey Dall. He joined the Megatherium Club and studied specimens in Hudson Bay. The Western Union Telegraph Expedition commissioned Kennicott as a scientist for their excursi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand Hayden
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (September 7, 1829 – December 22, 1887) was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union Army during the Civil War. Early life Ferdinand Hayden was born in Westfield, Massachusetts. As a young boy he was fascinated with all nature and wildlife, which led him into the field of medicine. He worked in Cleveland under Jared Potter Kirtland and thereafter in Albany, NY, where he worked under James Hall, of the ''Geological Survey of New York''. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1850 and from the Albany Medical College in 1853, where he attracted the notice of Professor James Hall, state geologist of New York, through whose influence he was induced to join in an exploration of Nebraska Territory, with Fielding B. Meek to study geology and collect fossils. Hall sent him on his first geological venture in the summer of 1853. B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodore Gill
Theodore Nicholas Gill (March 21, 1837 – September 25, 1914) was an American ichthyologist, mammalogist, malacologist and librarian. Career Born and educated in New York City under private tutors, Gill early showed interest in natural history. He was associated with J. Carson Brevoort in the arrangement of the latter's entomological and ichthyological collections before going to Washington D.C. in 1863 to work at the Smithsonian Institution. He catalogued mammals, fishes and mollusks most particularly although maintaining proficiency in other orders of animals. He was librarian at the Smithsonian and also senior assistant to the Library of Congress. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1867. Gill was professor of zoology at George Washington University. He was also a member of the Megatherium Club at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Fellow members frequently mocked him for his vanity. He was president of the American Associat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Humphrey Evers
Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparatory & high schools * Lawrence Academy at Groton, a preparatory school in Groton, Massachusetts, United States * Lawrence College, Ghora Gali, a high school in Pakistan * Lawrence School, Lovedale, a high school in India * The Lawrence School, Sanawar, a high school in India Research laboratories * Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, United States * Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, United States People * Lawrence (given name), including a list of people with the name * Lawrence (surname), including a list of people with the name * Lawrence (band), an American soul-pop group * Lawrence (judge royal) (died after 1180), Hungarian nobleman, Judge royal 1164–1172 * Lawrence (musician), Lawrence Hayward (born 1961), British musician ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of 19. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son's scientific aspirations. Cope married his cousin and had one child; the family moved from Philadelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years. Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West, prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of United States Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dunk (elephant)
Dunk (c. 1861 – March 30, 1917),"Dunk, Zoo Elephant, Hurt, Is Shot, And Children Mourn Death of Pet", ''Washington Post'', March 31, 1917. a tuskless, male Asian Elephant possibly from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), was the first elephant to reside at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. He was given to the National Zoo on April 30, 1891 by James E. Cooper, owner and manager of the Adam Forepaugh Circus. When Dunk first arrived at the National Zoo, he had no shelter and was tied to a tree with his companion Gold Dust to prevent him from wandering. Once a day, both elephants were walked to Rock Creek to swim. A temporary structure, known as the Octagonal House, was eventually built for the elephants. Construction on a permanent, brick elephant house, designed by Hornblower & Marshall, began in September 1902 and was completed in January 1903. Dunk was ill throughout the winter of 1917. On March 30, 1917, after Dunk broke his shoulder in a fall, keeper William Blackburne euthanized ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adam Forepaugh
Adam John Forepaugh (born Adam John Forbach; February 28, 1831 – January 22, 1890) was an American horse trader and circus owner. From 1865 through 1890 his circus operated under various names including Forepaugh's Circus, Forepaugh's Gigantic Circus and Menagerie, The Forepaugh Show, 4-PAW Show, The Adam Forepaugh Circus, and Forepaugh & The Wild West. He ran a successful horse trading business which provided horses to street railway companies. He became wealthy selling horses to the U.S. government during the American Civil War. He entered the circus business by taking part ownership in a circus due to an unpaid debt for the purchase of 44 horses. In the 1870s and 1880s, Forepaugh and P. T. Barnum had the two largest circuses in the United States and competed fiercely. His innovations included commission of the first railroad cars for a traveling circus in 1877, the first three-ring presentation and the first Wild West show. After Forepaugh's death in 1890, his circus oper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
