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Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For)
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
(May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, he received a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
at Erlangen and a medical degree in Munich. After studying with
Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...
and Alexander von Humboldt in Paris, Agassiz was appointed professor of natural history at the University of Neuchâtel. He emigrated to the United States in 1847 after visiting Harvard University. He went on to become professor of zoology and geology at Harvard, to head its Lawrence Scientific School, and to found its Museum of Comparative Zoology. Agassiz is known for observational data gathering and analysis. He made institutional and scientific contributions to zoology, geology, and related areas, including multivolume research books running to thousands of pages. He is particularly known for his contributions to
ichthyological Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish ( Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish ( Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octob ...
classification, including of extinct species such as megalodon, and to the study of geological history, including the founding of glaciology. His theories on human, animal and plant polygenism have been criticised as implicitly supporting scientific racism.


Early life

Louis Agassiz was born in the village of Môtier (''fr'') (now part of Haut-Vully which merged into
Mont-Vully Mont-Vully (; frp, Mont-Vulyi) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of See (district of Fribourg), See in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Fribourg (canton), Fribourg in Switzerland. It was formed on 1 January 20 ...
in 2016) in the Swiss
Canton of Fribourg The canton of Fribourg, also canton of Freiburg (french: Canton de Fribourg ; german: Kanton Freiburg ; frp, Canton de Fribôrg rm, Chantun Friburg it, Canton Friburgo) is located in western Switzerland. The canton is bilingual, with French ...
. He was the son of a pastor, Louis Rudolphe and his wife, Rose Mayor. His father was a Protestant clergyman, as had been his progenitors for six generations, and his mother was the daughter of a physician and an intellectual in her own right, who had assisted her husband in the education of her boys. He was educated at home until he spent four years at secondary school in Bienne, which he entered in 1818 and completed his elementary studies in Lausanne. Agassiz studied at the Universities of Zürich, Heidelberg and Munich. At the last one, he extended his knowledge of natural history, especially of botany. In 1829, he received the degree of doctor of philosophy at Erlangen and, in 1830, that of doctor of medicine at Munich. Moving to Paris, he came under the tutelage of Alexander von Humboldt and later received his financial benevolence. Humboldt and
Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...
launched him on his careers of respectively geology and zoology. Ichthyology soon became a focus of Agassiz's life's work.


Early work

In 1819 to 1820, the German biologists
Johann Baptist von Spix Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix (9 February 1781 – 13 March 1826) was a German natural history, biologist. From his expedition to Brazil, he brought to Germany a large variety of specimens of plants, insects, mammals, birds, amphibians and fish. ...
and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius undertook an expedition to Brazil. They returned home to Europe with many natural objects, including an important collection of the
freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of s ...
of Brazil, especially of the
Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...
. Spix, who died in 1826, likely from a tropical disease, did not live long enough to work out the history of those fish, and Martius selected Agassiz for this project. Agassiz threw himself into the work with an enthusiasm that would go on to characterize the rest of his life's work. The task of describing the Brazilian fish was completed and published in 1829. It was followed by research into the history of fish found in Lake Neuchâtel. Enlarging his plans, he in 1830 issued a prospectus of a ''History of the Freshwater Fish of Central Europe''. In 1839, however, the first part of the publication appeared, and it was completed in 1842. In November 1832, Agassiz was appointed professor of natural history at the University of Neuchâtel, at a salary of about US$400 and declined brilliant offers in Paris because of the leisure for private study that that position afforded him. The fossil fish in the rock of the surrounding region, the
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
s of Glarus and the limestones of Monte Bolca, soon attracted his attention. At the time, very little had been accomplished in their scientific study. Agassiz as early as 1829, planned the publication of a work. More than any other, it would lay the foundation of his worldwide fame. Five volumes of his ''Recherches sur les poissons fossiles'' (''Research on Fossil Fish'') were published from 1833 to 1843. They were magnificently illustrated, chiefly by
Joseph Dinkel Joseph Dinkel (1806 – 1891) was an Austrian artist known for his illustrations of scientific specimens including for works by Louis Agassiz. He also did architectural and engineering drawing. Dinkel studied at the Bavarian Academy ...
. In gathering materials for that work, Agassiz visited the principal museums in Europe. Meeting Cuvier in Paris, he received much encouragement and assistance from him. In 1833 he married Cecile Braun, the sister of his friend Alexander Braun and established his household at
Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...
. Trained to scientific drawing by her brothers, his wife was of the greatest assistance to Agassiz, with some of the most beautiful plates in ''fossil'' and ''freshwater'' fishes being drawn by her. Agassiz found that his palaeontological analyses required a new ichthyological classification. The fossils that he examined rarely showed any traces of the soft tissues of fish but instead, consisted chiefly of the teeth, scales, and fins, with the bones being perfectly preserved in comparatively-few instances. He therefore adopted a classification that divided fish into four groups (ganoids, placoids, cycloids, and ctenoids), based on the nature of the scales and other dermal appendages. That did much to improve fish taxonomy, but Agassiz's classification has since been superseded. With Louis de Coulon, both father and son, he founded the ''Societé des Sciences Naturelles'', of which he was the first secretary and in conjunction with the Coulons also arranged a provisional museum of natural history in the orphan's home. Agassiz needed financial support to continue his work. The British Association and the Earl of Ellesmere, then Lord Francis Egerton, stepped in to help. The 1290 original drawings made for the work were purchased by the Earl and presented by him to the Geological Society of London. In 1836, the Wollaston Medal was awarded to Agassiz by the council of that society for his work on fossil ichthyology. In 1838, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society. Meanwhile, invertebrate animals engaged his attention. In 1837, he issued the "Prodrome" of a monograph on the recent and fossil Echinodermata, the first part of which appeared in 1838; in 1839–1840, he published two quarto volumes on the fossil echinoderms of Switzerland; and in 1840–1845, he issued his ''Études critiques sur les mollusques fossiles'' (''Critical Studies on Fossil Mollusks''). Before Agassiz's first visit to England in 1834, Hugh Miller and other geologists had brought to light the remarkable fossil fish of the Old Red Sandstone of the northeast of Scotland. The strange forms of ''
Pterichthys ''Pterichthyodes'' is a genus of antiarch placoderm fishes from the Devonian period. Its fossils have been discovered in Scotland. They were one of the first species recognized for what they were, as their fossils are common in the Old Red Sand ...
'', ''
Coccosteus ''Coccosteus'' (from el, κόκκος , 'berry' and el, ὀστέον 'bone') is an extinct genus of arthrodire placoderm from the Devonian period. Its fossils have been found throughout Europe and North America. The majority of these have b ...
'', and other genera were then made known to geologists for the first time. They were of intense interest to Agassiz and formed the subject of a monograph by him published in 1844–1(45: ''Monographie des poissons fossiles du Vieux Grès Rouge, ou Système Dévonien (Old Red Sandstone) des Îles Britanniques et de Russie'' (''Monograph on Fossil Fish of the Old Red Sandstone, or Devonian System of the British Isles and of Russia''). In the early stages of his career in Neuchatel, Agassiz also made a name for himself as a man who could run a scientific department well. Under his care, the University of Neuchâtel soon became a leading institution for scientific inquiry. In 1842 to 1846, Agassiz issued his ''Nomenclator Zoologicus'', a classification list with references of all names used in zoological genera and groups. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1843.


Ice age

The vacation of 1836 was spent by Agassiz and his wife in the little village of
Bex Bex (; german: Beis; frp, Bés) is a municipality in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the district of Aigle. It is a few kilometers south of its sister town municipality of Aigle. History Bex is first mentioned in 574 as ''in Bacci ...
, where he met
Jean de Charpentier Jean de Charpentier or Johann von Charpentier (8 December 1786 – 12 December 1855) was a German-Swiss geologist who studied Swiss glaciers. He was born in Freiberg, Saxony, Germany and died in Bex, Switzerland. Life After following in his f ...
and Ignaz Venetz. Their recently announced glacial theories had startled the scientific world, and Agassiz returned to Neuchâtel as an enthusiastic convert. In 1837, Agassiz proposed that the Earth had been subjected to a past ice age.E.P. Evans:
The Authorship of the Glacial Theory
, ''North American review'' Volume 145, Issue 368, July 1887. Accessed on January 24, 2018.
He presented the theory to the Helvetic Society that ancient glaciers flowed outward from the Alps, and even larger glaciers had covered the plains and mountains of Europe, Asia, and North America and smothered the entire
Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
in a prolonged ice age. In the same year, he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...
. Before that proposal, Goethe, de Saussure, Ignaz Venetz, Jean de Charpentier,
Karl Friedrich Schimper Karl Friedrich Schimper (15 February 1803 – 21 December 1867) was a German botany, botanist, Natural science, naturalist and poet. Life Early life and education Schimper was born in Mannheim, on February 15, 1803, to Friedrich Ludwig ...
, and others had studied the
glaciers A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
of the Alps, and Goethe, Charpentier, and Schimper had even concluded that the erratic blocks of alpine rocks scattered over the slopes and summits of the
Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( , , , ; french: Massif du Jura; german: Juragebirge; it, Massiccio del Giura, rm, Montagnas da Jura) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the Frenc ...
had been moved there by glaciers. Those ideas attracted the attention of Agassiz, and he discussed them with Charpentier and Schimper, whom he accompanied on successive trips to the Alps. Agassiz even had a hut constructed upon one of the
Aar Glaciers The Aargletschers, literally "Aare-Glaciers", are a system of glaciers located at the sources of the Aare river in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland. In the original German the name is "Aargletscher" both in singular and plural, as in German the plu ...
and for a time made it his home to investigate the structure and movements of the ice. Agassiz visited England, and with William Buckland, the only English naturalist who shared his ideas, made a tour of the British Isles in search of glacial phenomena, and became satisfied that his theory of an ice age was correct. In 1840, Agassiz published a two-volume work, ''Études sur les glaciers'' ("Studies on Glaciers"). In it, he discussed the movements of the glaciers, their moraines, and their influence in grooving and rounding the rocks and in producing the striations and ''roches moutonnées'' seen in Alpine-style landscapes. He accepted Charpentier and Schimper's idea that some of the alpine glaciers had extended across the wide plains and valleys of the
Aar AAR or Aar may refer to: Geography * Aar, a river in Switzerland, tributary of the Rhine *Aar (Lahn), a tributary of Lahn river in Germany, descending from the Taunus mountains * Aar (Dill), a tributary of Dill river in Germany, also in the bas ...
and Rhône, but he went further by concluding that in the recent past, Switzerland had been covered with one vast sheet of ice originating in the higher Alps and extending over the valley of northwestern Switzerland to the southern slopes of the Jura. The publication of the work gave fresh impetus to the study of glacial phenomena in all parts of the world. Familiar then with recent glaciation, Agassiz and the English geologist William Buckland visited the mountains of Scotland in 1840. There, they found clear evidence in different locations of glacial action. The discovery was announced to the Geological Society of London in successive communications. The mountainous districts of England, Wales, and Ireland were understood to have been centres for the dispersion of glacial debris. Agassiz remarked "that great sheets of ice, resembling those now existing in Greenland, once covered all the countries in which unstratified gravel (boulder drift) is found; that this gravel was in general produced by the
trituration Trituration (Latin, ''grinding'') is the name of several different methods used to process materials. In one sense, it is a form of comminution (reducing the particle size of a substance). In another sense, it is the production of a homogeneous pow ...
of the sheets of ice upon the subjacent surface, etc." In his later years, Agassiz applied his glacial theories to the geology of the Brazilian tropics, including the Amazon. Agassiz began with a working hypothesis which could be tested by the results of fieldwork to find either inconclusive, or conclusively supporting or refuting evidence. A hypothesis that can be conclusively refuted is better than a hypothesis that difficult to test. Agassiz had a close association with his student and field assistant, the geologist Charles Hartt who eventually refuted Agassiz's theories about the Amazon based on his fieldwork there. Instead of evidence for any glacial processes, he found chemically weathered sediments from marine and tropical fluvial, not glacial, processes, a finding that later geologists confirmed. Agassiz hypothesis that the Amazon was affected by the
Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...
was correct, although the mechanism causing the effect was non-glacial. The Amazon rainforest was split into two large blocks by extensive savanna during the LGM.


United States

With the aid of a grant of money from the king of Prussia, Agassiz crossed the Atlantic in the autumn of 1846 to investigate the natural history and geology of North America and to deliver a course of lectures on "The Plan of Creation as shown in the Animal Kingdom" by invitation from John Amory Lowell, at the
Lowell Institute The Lowell Institute is a United States educational foundation located in Boston, Massachusetts, providing both free public lectures, and also advanced lectures. It was endowed by a bequest of $250,000 left by John Lowell Jr., who died in 1836. ...
in Boston, Massachusetts. The financial offers that were presented to him in the United States induced him to settle there, where he remained to the end of his life. He was elected a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1846. In 1846, still married to Cecilie, who remained with their three children in Switzerland, Agassiz met Elizabeth Cabot Cary at a dinner. The two developed a romantic attachment, and when his wife died in 1848, they made plans to marry, and the ceremony that took place on April 25, 1850, in Boston, Massachusetts at King's Chapel. Agassiz brought his children to live with them, and Elizabeth raised and developed close relationships with her step-children. She had no children of her own.Paton, Lucy Allen. ''Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz; a biography.'' Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919. Agassiz had a mostly cordial relationship with the Harvard botanist
Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...
despite their disagreements. Agassiz believed each human race had been separately created, but Gray, a supporter of Charles Darwin, believed in the shared evolutionary ancestry of all humans. In addition, Agassiz was a member of the
Scientific Lazzaroni The Scientific Lazzaroni is a self-mocking name adopted by Alexander Dallas Bache and his group of scientists who flourished before and up to the American Civil War. (" Lazzaroni" was slang for the homeless idlers of Naples who live by chance work ...
, a group of mostly physical scientists who wanted American academia to mimic the more autocratic academic structures of European universities, but Gray was a staunch opponent of that group. Agassiz's engagement for the Lowell Institute lectures precipitated the establishment in 1847 of the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University, with Agassiz as its head. Harvard appointed him professor of zoology and geology, and he founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology there in 1859 and served as its first director until his death in 1873. During his tenure at Harvard, Agassiz studied the effect of the last ice age in North America. In August 1857, Agassiz was offered the chair of palaeontology in the Museum of Natural History, Paris, which he refused. He was later decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Agassiz continued his lectures for the Lowell Institute. In succeeding years, he gave lectures on "Ichthyology" (1847–1848), "Comparative Embryology" (1848–1849), "Functions of Life in Lower Animals" (1850–1851), "Natural History" (1853–1854), "Methods of Study in Natural History" (1861–1862), "Glaciers and the Ice Period" (1864–1865), "Brazil" (1866–1867), and "Deep Sea
Dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
" (1869–1970). In 1850, he had married Elizabeth Cabot Cary, who later wrote introductory books about natural history and a lengthy biography of her husband after he had died. Agassiz served as a nonresident lecturer at Cornell University while he was also on faculty at Harvard. In 1852, he accepted a medical professorship of
comparative anatomy Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era, continuing in t ...
at
Charlestown, Massachusetts Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins t ...
, but he resigned in two years. From then on, Agassiz's scientific studies dropped off, but he became one of the best-known scientists in the world. By 1857, Agassiz was so well-loved that his friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote "The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz" in his honor and read it at a dinner given for Agassiz by the Saturday Club in Cambridge. Agassiz's own writing continued with four (of a planned 10) volumes of ''Natural History of the United States'', published from 1857 to 1862. He also published a catalog of papers in his field, ''Bibliographia Zoologiae et Geologiae'', in four volumes between 1848 and 1854. Stricken by ill health in the 1860s, Agassiz resolved to return to the field for relaxation and to resume his studies of Brazilian fish. In April 1865, he led a party to Brazil. After his return in August 1866, an account of the expedition, ''A Journey in Brazil'', was published in 1868. In December 1871, he made a second eight-month excursion, known as the ''
Hassler Hassler (also Haßler, Häßler, Hässler, Hasler, ...) is a toponymic surname derived from a number of places called Hasel or Hassel in German-speaking parts of Europe. Notable people with this name include: Musicians *A musical dynasty in Nur ...
'' expedition under the command of Commander Philip Carrigan Johnson (the brother of Eastman Johnson) and visited South America on its southern Atlantic and Pacific Seaboards. The ship explored the Magellan Strait, which drew the praise of Charles Darwin. His second wife,
Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz (pseudonym, Actaea; December 5, 1822 – June 27, 1907) was an American educator, naturalist, writer, and the co-founder and first president of Radcliffe College. A researcher of natural history, she was an author ...
, the daughter of Thomas Graves Cary, of Boston, who was president of
Radcliffe college Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
in 1898, desired to share his studies and aided her husband in preparing his ''A Journey in Brazil''. In connection with their son,
Alexander Agassiz Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (December 17, 1835March 27, 1910), son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer. Biography Agassiz was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and immigrated to ...
, she wrote ''Seaside Studies in Natural History'' and ''Marine Animals of Massachusetts''. Elizabeth wrote at the Strait that "the ''Hassler'' pursued her course, past a seemingly endless panorama of mountains and forests rising into the pale regions of snow and ice, where lay glaciers in which every rift and crevasse, as well as the many cascades flowing down to join the waters beneath, could be counted as she steamed by them.... These were weeks of exquisite delight to Agassiz. The vessel often skirted the shore so closely that its geology could be studied from the deck."


Family

From his first marriage to Cecilie Braun, Agassiz had two daughters, Ida and Pauline, and a son, Alexander. In 1863, Agassiz's daughter Ida married Henry Lee Higginson, who later founded the
Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...
and was a benefactor to Harvard and other schools. On November 30, 1860, Agassiz's daughter Pauline was married to Quincy Adams Shaw (1825–1908), a wealthy Boston merchant and later a benefactor to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Pauline Agassiz Shaw later became a prominent educator, suffragist, and philanthropist.


Later life

In the last years of his life, Agassiz worked to establish a permanent school in which zoological science could be pursued amid the living subjects of its study. In 1873, the private philanthropist John Anderson gave Agassiz the island of
Penikese Penikese Island is a island off the coast of Massachusetts, United States, in Buzzards Bay. It is one of the Elizabeth Islands, which make up the town of Gosnold, Massachusetts. Penikese is located near the west end of the Elizabeth island cha ...
, in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts (south of
New Bedford New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American pe ...
), and presented him with $50,000 to endow it permanently as a practical school of natural science that would be especially devoted to the study of marine zoology. The school collapsed soon after Agassiz's death but is considered to be a precursor of the nearby Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. Agassiz had a profound influence on the American branches of his two fields and taught many future scientists who would go on to prominence, including
Alpheus Hyatt Alpheus Hyatt (April 5, 1838 – January 15, 1902) was an American zoologist and palaeontologist. Biography Alpheus Hyatt II was born in Washington, D.C. to Alpheus Hyatt and Harriet Randolph (King) Hyatt. He briefly attended the Maryla ...
,
David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Univer ...
, Joel Asaph Allen, Joseph Le Conte, Ernest Ingersoll, William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, Nathaniel Shaler,
Samuel Hubbard Scudder Samuel Hubbard Scudder (April 13, 1837 – May 17, 1911) was an American entomologist and paleontologist. He was a leading figure in entomology during his lifetime and the founder of insect paleontology in America. In addition to fossil insects, ...
,
Alpheus Packard Alpheus Spring Packard Jr. LL.D. (February 19, 1839 – February 14, 1905) was an American entomologist and palaeontologist. He described over 500 new animal species – especially butterflies and moths – and was one of the founders of ''The A ...
, and his son
Alexander Emanuel Agassiz Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (December 17, 1835March 27, 1910), son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer. Biography Agassiz was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and immigrated t ...
. He had a profound impact on the paleontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott and the natural scientist Edward S. Morse. Agassiz had a reputation for being a demanding teacher. He would allegedly "lock a student up in a room full of turtle-shells, or lobster-shells, or oyster-shells, without a book or a word to help him, and not let him out till he had discovered all the truths which the objects contained."James, William. "Louis Agassiz, Words Spoken.... at the Reception of the American Society of Naturalists.... ec 30, 1896 pp. 9–10. Cambridge, 1897. Quoted in Cooper 1917, pp. 61–62. Two of Agassiz's most prominent students detailed their personal experiences under his tutelage: Scudder, in a short magazine article for'' Every Saturday'',; Originally published in and Shaler, in his ''Autobiography''. Those and other recollections were collected and published by Lane Cooper in 1917, which Ezra Pound would draw on for his anecdote of Agassiz and the sunfish. In the early 1840s, Agassiz named two fossil fish species after Mary Anning (''
Acrodus anningiae ''Acrodus'' (from el, άκρος , 'high' and el, ὀδούς 'tooth') is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish from the Permian to Paleocene periods.Johnson, G., 1981. Hybondontoidei (Chondrichthyes) from the Witchita- Albany Group ( Early ...
'' and ''Belenostomus anningiae'') and another after her friend,
Elizabeth Philpot Elizabeth Philpot (1780–1857) was an early 19th-century British fossil collector, amateur palaeontologist and artist who collected fossils from the cliffs around Lyme Regis in Dorset on the southern coast of England. She is best known today fo ...
. Anning was a paleontologist known around the world for important finds, but because of her gender, she was often not formally recognized for her work. Agassiz was grateful for the help that the women gave him in examining fossil fish specimens during his visit to Lyme Regis in 1834. Agassiz died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1873 and was buried on the Bellwort Path at
Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...
, joined later by his wife. His monument is a boulder from a glacial moraine of the Aar near the site of the old Hôtel des Neuchâtelois, not far from the spot where his hut once stood. His grave is sheltered by pine trees from his old home in Switzerland.


Legacy

The Cambridge elementary school north of Harvard University was named in his honor, and the surrounding neighborhood became known as "
Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
" as a result. The school's name was changed to the Maria L. Baldwin School on May 21, 2002, because of concerns about Agassiz's involvement in scientific racism and to honor
Maria Louise Baldwin Maria Louise Baldwin (September 13, 1856 – January 9, 1922) was an American educator and civic leader born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She lived all her life in Cambridge and Boston. Writing in 1917, W. E. B. Du Bois claimed she ha ...
, the African-American principal of the school, who served from 1889 to 1922. The neighborhood, however, continued to be known as Agassiz. Circa 2009, neighborhood residents decided to rename the neighborhood's community council as the "Agassiz-Baldwin Community". Then, in July 2021, culminating a two-year effort on the part of neighborhood residents, the Cambridge City Council voted unanimously to change the name to the Baldwin Neighborhood. An elementary school, the Agassiz Elementary School in
Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
, existed from 1922 to 1981.


Geological tributes

An ancient
glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...
that formed in central North America, Lake Agassiz, is named after him, as are Mount Agassiz in California's Palisades, Mount Agassiz, in the Uinta Mountains of Utah, Agassiz Peak in Arizona,
Agassiz Rock The Monoliths, formerly known as Agassiz Rock, is a park in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, owned and maintained by The Trustees of Reservations. The park's name is from two examples of large glacial erratic boulders plucked from bedrock. A ...
in Massachusetts and in his native Switzerland, the
Agassizhorn The Agassizhorn is a mountain of the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It lies just north-west of the Finsteraarhorn, the main summit of the range. The Agassizhorn is the tripoint between the valleys of the Lower Grindelwald Glacier, the Unteraar Gla ...
in the Bernese Alps.
Agassiz Glacier (Montana) Agassiz Glacier is in Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana. It is named after Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-American glaciologist. The glacier is situated in a cirque to the southeast of Kintla Peak west of the Continental Divide. Agas ...
and Agassiz Creek in Glacier National Park and
Agassiz Glacier (Alaska) __NOTOC__ Agassiz Glacier is a valley glacier in the Saint Elias Mountains in southern Alaska (USA) and to a lesser extent on to Canadian territory. Glacier was named by William Libbey, a member of the New York Times expedition in 1886, after ...
in Saint Elias Mountains, Mount Agassiz in Bethlehem, New Hampshire in the White Mountains also bear his name. A
crater Crater may refer to: Landforms *Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet *Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...
on Mars '' Crater Agassiz'' and a promontorium on the moon are also named in his honor. A headland situated in
Palmer Land Palmer Land () is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica that lies south of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This application of Palmer Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the Advisory Committee on Antarctic N ...
, Antarctica, is named in his honor,
Cape Agassiz Cape Agassiz is the east tip of Hollick-Kenyon Peninsula, a narrow ice-drowned spur extending east from the main mountain axis of the Antarctic Peninsula between Mobiloil Inlet and Revelle Inlet. The cape is the east end of a line from Cape Je ...
. A main-belt
asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
,
2267 Agassiz 67 may refer to: * 67 (number) * one of the years 67 BC, AD 67, 1967, 2067 * ''67'', a 1992 song by Love Battery from the album '' Between the Eyes'' * 67 (rap group), a drill music group from London See also * 67th Regiment (disambiguation) * ...
, is also named in association with him.


Taxa named in his honor


Biological tributes

Several animal species are named in honor of him, including *Agassiz's dwarf cichlid '' Apistogramma agassizii'' ; *Agassiz's perchlet, also known as Agassiz's glass fish; and the olive perchlet ''
Ambassis agassizii Agassiz's perchlet (''Ambassis agassizii''), also known as Agassiz's glass fish and the olive perchlet, is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Ambassidae. It is semi-transparent with dark scale edges forming a pattern over most of the bod ...
'' ; *The Spring Cavefish ''
Forbesichthys agassizii The spring cavefish (''Forbesichthys agassizii'') is the monotypic, only member of the genus ''Forbesichthys'' and is one of seven species in the family Amblyopsidae. This species is listed as List of endangered species in Missouri, state endange ...
'' ; *the catfish ''
Corydoras agassizii ''Corydoras agassizii'' is a species of catfish found in the Amazon basin. It can be found in the border area of Peru and Brazil. It lives in tropical waters with a water temperature of 22 - 26 °C, a pH of 6.0 - 8.0 and a hardness of 2 - 25 ...
'' ; *the Rio Skate ''
Rioraja agassizii The Rio skate (''Rioraja agassizii'') is a shallow water skate native to the Atlantic coast of South America from Brazil to southern Argentina. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Rioraja''. Named in honor of zoologist-geologist Loui ...
'' ; *The South American fish '' Leporinus agassizii'' *the Snailfish ''
Liparis agassizii ''Liparis agassizii'', in one instance called "agassiz's snailfish", is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Liparidae, the snailfishes. It lives in the North Pacific Ocean at a depth range between zero and one hundred met ...
'' ; *a sea snail, ''
Borsonella agassizii ''Borsonella agassizii'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Borsoniidae. The snail was named after Louis_Agassiz. Description The length of the shell attains 23 mm. (Original description) The shell is bico ...
'' ; *a species of crab ''
Eucratodes agassizii ''Eucratodes agassizii'' is a species of crabs in the family Xanthidae Xanthidae is a family of crabs known as gorilla crabs, mud crabs, pebble crabs or rubble crabs. Xanthid crabs are often brightly coloured and are highly poisonous, contain ...
'' ; *'' Isocapnia agassizi'' (a
stonefly Plecoptera is an order of insects, commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the mo ...
); *'' Publius agassizi'' (a passalid beetle); *''
Xylocrius agassizi ''Xylocrius agassizi'' is a species of beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other i ...
'' (a longhorn beetle); *'' Exoprosopa agassizii'' (a
bee fly The Bombyliidae are a family of flies, commonly known as bee flies. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, some being important pollinators. Larvae are mostly parasitoids of other insects. Overview The Bombyliidae are a large family of fl ...
); *''
Chelonia agassizii The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...
'' (Galápagos green turtle);Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Agassiz, J.L.R.", p. 2). *'' Philodryas agassizii'' (a South American snake); and the most well-known, *''
Gopherus agassizii The desert tortoise (''Gopherus agassizii''), is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, and to the Sinaloan thornscr ...
'' (the desert tortoise). *In 2020, a new genus of pycnodont fish (Actinopterygii, Pycnodontiformes) named '' Agassazilia erfoundina'' (Cooper and Martill, 2020) from the Moroccan Kem Kem Group was named in honor of Agassiz, who first identified the group in the 1830s.


Tribute awards

In 2005, the European Geosciences Union Division on Cryospheric Sciences established the Louis Agassiz Medal, awarded to individuals in recognition of their outstanding scientific contribution to the study of the cryosphere on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system. Agassiz took part in a monthly gathering called the Saturday Club at the
Parker House Parker may refer to: Persons * Parker (given name) * Parker (surname) Places Place names in the United States *Parker, Arizona *Parker, Colorado * Parker, Florida * Parker, Idaho *Parker, Kansas * Parker, Missouri * Parker, North Carolina *Parke ...
, a meeting of Boston writers and intellectuals. He was therefore mentioned in a stanza of the
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most fa ...
poem " At the Saturday Club:"


Daguerreotypes of Renty and Delia Taylor

In 1850, Agassiz commissioned daguerreotypes, which were described as "haunting and voyeuristic" of the enslaved
Renty Taylor Renty Taylor (-after 1865), also known as Renty Thompson or Papa Renty, was an African man of the 18th and 19th centuries. Born in the Congo Basin, he was captured and enslaved and brought to the United States and sold as a slave. He worked on th ...
and Taylor's daughter, Delia, to further his arguments about black inferiority. They are the earliest known photographs of enslaved persons. Agassiz left the images to Harvard, and they remained in the Peabody Museum's attic until 1976, when they were rediscovered by Ellie Reichlin, a former staff member. The 15 daguerrotypes were in a case with the embossing "J. T. Zealy, Photographer, Columbia," with several handwritten labels, which helped in later identification. Reichlin spent months doing research to try to identify the people in the photos, but Harvard University did not make efforts to contact the families and licensed the photos for use. In 2011, Tamara Lanier wrote a letter to the president of Harvard that identified herself as a direct descendant of the Taylors and asked the university to turn over the photos to her. In 2019, Taylor's descendants sued Harvard for the return of the images and unspecified damages. The lawsuit was supported by 43 living descendants of Agassiz, who wrote in a letter of support, "For Harvard to give the daguerreotypes to Ms. Lanier and her family would begin to make amends for its use of the photos as exhibits for the white supremacist theory Agassiz espoused." Everyone must evaluate fully "his role in promoting a pseudoscientific justification for white supremacy."


Polygenism and racism

After Agassiz came to the United States, he wrote prolifically in the field of scientific polygenism. His purpose was to develop better working hypotheses so a complete theory could explain his and his colleagues collective observations of the natural world. He was a superior scientist in his era, and the outstanding natural scientist of his generation in the North America. Distinguished Professor of English Christoph Irmscher called him the "Creator of American Science". After scientific colleagues explained their findings, he became an early proponent of the
Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...
(LGM) because there was sufficient evidence. He sought further evidence which could support or refute LGM as he researched worldwide. He wrote to his wife of the discovery of an extinct Mammoth under glacial ice floes in Siberia. Since Agassiz did not have the benefit of the insights of plate tectonics, and the lack of "missing link" fossil evidence in his era, it seemed to him and many others that the evidence indicated that there had been multiple creation events separated by worldwide and/or regional catyclysms, rather than a single creation event. He did not consider Darwin's Theory of Evolution to have sufficient evidence when it was first presented in 1859. In fact, he had also identified the wide variety of speciation during his own earlier field work. He well knew the earth was much older than some Bible readers assumed. He rejected the Lamarckian idea of inheritance of acquired characteristics that Darwin had accepted and later expanded upon in his writings on heredity. Agassiz asserted that the evidence being presented by his contemporaries was not sufficient to conclude that migration and
adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
could account for the geographical distribution patterns of flora and fauna. Similar concerns from other fields of scientific inquiry led to the explanatory theory of continental drift being more fully developed in the early 20th century but at an implausibly high rate for the separation of the Americas from Europe and Africa of 250 cm/year. The evidence proving the mechanism of plate tectonics did not occur until 1968, with a rate about 2.5 cm/year. Agassiz asserted the evidence indicated that the people of earth were not obviously descended from a single biological pair Adam and Eve, a co-Adamist conjecture proven correct in the 21st century by identification of Y-chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve. Lurie (1954) mentions that Agassiz developed (what in retrospect is considered) a co-Adamist hypothesis to explain the distribution of life forms, which holds that animals, plants, and humans were all created in "special provinces" with distinct populations of species created in and for each province, and that these populations were endowed with different attributes. A more exacting explanation is that Agassiz succinctly described what was obvious around the world: Various regions have differentiated species of plants and animals, and mankind appeared to be speciated also. "Special provinces" means "uniquely speciated zones" or in Agassiz own words: "natural zoological provinces".Types of Mankind: Or, Ethnological Researches Based Upon the Ancient Monuments, Paintings, Sculptures, and Crania of Races, and Upon Their Natural, Geographical, Philological and Biblical History : Illustrated by Selections from the Inedited Papers of Samuel George Morton and by Additional Contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson.
By Josiah Clark Nott, George Robins Gliddon. Publ. J.B. Lippincott, Grambo & Company, 1854. Page 78. Accessed 19 August 2022.
He considered this hypothesis testable, and matched to the available evidence. He also indicated that there were obvious geographical barriers that were the likely cause of speciation. His observation and thoughts were presented at a time when it was important to carefully explain why a single creation event was unlikely. The available fossil record showed major gaps rather than a continuum of species through the ages because researchers had not discovered locations that contained the "missing link" fossils. So Agassiz and others focused on Variation, which contributed to the Modern Synthesis in the mid-20th century, while the principles of
gene flow In population genetics, gene flow (also known as gene migration or geneflow and allele flow) is the transfer of genetic material from one population to another. If the rate of gene flow is high enough, then two populations will have equivalent a ...
would not be developed until over a century in the future. According to Agassiz, as presented by the anthropologist
Josiah Clark Nott Josiah Clark Nott (March 31, 1804March 31, 1873) was an American surgeon and anthropologist. He is known for his studies into the etiology of yellow fever and malaria, including the theory that they originate from germs. Nott, who owned slave ...
in 1854, the conditions in which particular creatures live "are the conditions necessary to their maintenance, and what among organized beings is essential to their temporal existence must be at least one of the conditions under which they were created". Where a modern reader of the above excerpt might conclude he was speaking about individuals being created, he specifically describes swarms, nations and plants – what is now referred to as taxa – as the "beings". Agassiz was opposed to evolution, believing that the theory of evolution reduced the wisdom of God to an impersonal materialism. Agassiz was influenced by philosophical idealism. Agassiz believed that one species of humans exists, but many different creations of races occurred.Paul M. Blowers, 2008, "Entering 'This Sublime and Blessed Amphitheatre': Contemplation of Nature and Interpretation of the Bible in the Patristic Period, ''In'' "Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: Up to 1700", 2 vols (Scott Mandelbrote & Jitse van der Meer, Eds.), , book , pp. 147–176, esp. 159–164 and 151–154, chapter , accessed June 8, 2014. According to Agassiz, genera and species were ideas in the mind of God; their existence in God's mind prior to their physical creation meant that God could create humans as one species, yet in several distinct and geographically separate acts of creation. Agassiz was in modern terms a creationist who believed nature had order because God created it directly. Agassiz viewed his career in science as a search for ideas in the mind of the creator expressed in creation.
Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould sp ...
asserted that Agassiz's observations sprang from racist bias, in particular from his revulsion on first encountering African-Americans in the United States. Referencing letters written by Agassiz, Gould compares Agassiz' public display of dispassionate objectivity to his private correspondence, in which he describes "the production half breeds" as "a sin against nature..." Describing the interbreeding of white and black people, he warns, "We have already had to struggle, in our progress, against the influence of universal equality... but how shall we eradicate the stigma of a lower race when its blood has once been allowed to flow freely into our children." In contrast, others have asserted that, despite favoring polygenism, Agassiz rejected racism and believed in a spiritualized human unity. However, in the same article, Agassiz asks the reader to consider the hierarchy of races, mentioning "The indomitable, courageous, proud Indian, — in how very different a light he stands by the side of the submissive, obsequious, imitative negro, or by the side of the tricky, cunning, and cowardly Mongolian! Are not these facts indications that the different races do not rank upon one level in nature Agassiz never supported slavery and claimed his views on polygenism had nothing to do with politics. His views on polygenism have been claimed to have emboldened proponents of slavery. Accusations of racism against Agassiz have prompted the renaming of landmarks, schoolhouses, and other institutions (which abound in Massachusetts) that bear his name. Opinions about those moves are often mixed, given his extensive scientific legacy in other areas, and uncertainty about his actual racial beliefs. In 2007, the Swiss government acknowledged his "racist thinking", but declined to rename the Agassizhorn summit. In 2017, the
Swiss Alpine Club The Swiss Alpine Club (german: Schweizer Alpen-Club, french: Club Alpin Suisse, it, Club Alpino Svizzero, rm, Club Alpin Svizzer) is the largest mountaineering club in Switzerland. It was founded in 1863 in Olten and it is now composed of 111 s ...
declined to revoke Agassiz's status as a member of honor, which he received in 1865 for his scientific work, because the club considered that status to have lapsed on Agassiz's death. In 2020, the
Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
Department of Psychology asked for a statue of Louis Agassiz to be removed from the front façade of its building. In 2021, Chicago Public Schools announced they would remove Agassiz's name from an elementary school and rename it for the abolitionist and political activist, Harriet Tubman. Following Darwin's elucidation of evolutionary theory in 1859, which in its early years had inconsistencies, Agassiz sponsored expeditions and motivated others to continue to advance natural history in the direction the evidence promoted. He had a great deal of respect for scientists who did actual field work to discover new evidence, even for scientists such as Darwin and his Darwinist colleagues at Harvard. Finding evidence to corroborate or refute a hypothesis could be arduous and life-threatening. The Thayer Expedition of 1865-66 included his personal artist-illustrator Jacques Burkhardt, Brazilian naturalist Joao Coutinho, associate researcher
Charles Frederick Hartt Charles Frederick Hartt (23 August 1840 in Fredericton, New Brunswick – 18 March 1878) was a Canadian-American geologist, paleontologist and naturalist who specialized in the geology of Brazil. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Hartt graduated ...
and students Walter Hunnewell, William James,William James
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online). Stanford University. Accessed 19 August 2022.
and Stephen van Rensselaer Thayer with additional Harvard students. Hartt succumbed to yellow fever on a later expedition, James developed lifelong infirmities and others, including Agassiz himself had shortened lifespans.


Works

*
Recherches sur les poissons fossiles
' (1833–1843) * ''History of the Freshwater Fishes of Central Europe'' (1839–1842) *
Études sur les glaciers
' (1840) *
Études critiques sur les mollusques fossiles
' (1840–1845) *
Nomenclator Zoologicus
' (1842–1846) *
Monographie des poissons fossiles du Vieux Gres Rouge, ou Systeme Devonien (Old Red Sandstone) des Iles Britanniques et de Russie
' (1844–1845) *
Bibliographia Zoologiae et Geologiae
' (1848) * (with A. A. Gould
''Principles of Zoology for the use of Schools and Colleges''
(Boston, 1848) *
Lake Superior: Its Physical Character, Vegetation and Animals, compared with those of other and similar regions
' (Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1850) *
Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America
' (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1857–1862) *
Geological Sketches
' (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866) *
A Journey in Brazil
' (1868) *
De l'espèce et de la classification en zoologie
' 'Essay on classification''(Trans. Felix Vogeli. Paris: Bailière, 1869) *
Geological Sketches (Second Series)
' (Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1876)
''Essay on Classification''
by Louis Agassiz (1962, Cambridge)


Taxa described by him

*See :Taxa named by Louis Agassiz


See also

* List of geologists


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * Smith, Harriet Knight, ''The history of the Lowell Institute'', Boston: Lamson, Wolffe and Co., 1898. * * Attribution: * *


Archive sources

A collection of Louis Agassiz's professional and personal life is conserved in the State Archives of Neuchâtel. *


External links

* * * *
Works by Louis Agassiz
online at the
Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as worldwide consortiumof natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working toge ...
. * * Pictures and texts o
''Excursions et séjours dans les glaciers et les hautes régions des Alpes''
and o
''Nouvelles études et expériences sur les glaciers actuels''
by Louis Agassiz can be found in the database VIATIMAGES.

by Louis Agassiz (1850) * '' Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz'', by
Mabel Louise Robinson Mabel Louise Robinson (July 19, 1874 – February 21, 1962) was an American writer of children's books. She was passionate about writing books for young adults. Her "primary goal in life as towrite books for young women, showcasing the protago ...
(1939)
free download
at ''A Celebration of Women Writers'' – UPenn Digital Library

(Agassiz went to Brazil to find glacial boulders and to refute Darwin. Dom Pedro II gave his support for Agassiz's expedition on the Amazon River.)
Louis Agassiz Correspondence
Houghton Library, Harvard University
Illustrations from 'Monographies d'échinodermes vivans et fossiles'

National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
* Agassiz, Louis (1842
"The glacial theory and its recent progress"
''The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. 33''. p. 217–283. ( Linda Hall Library) * Agassiz, Louis (1863
''Methods of study in natural history''
– ( Linda Hall Library)
Agassiz Rock, Edinburgh
– during a visit to Edinburgh in 1840, Agassiz explained the striations on this rock's surface as due to glaciation {{DEFAULTSORT:Agassiz, Louis 1807 births 1873 deaths American Christian creationists 19th-century American geologists American glaciologists American ichthyologists Catastrophism Swiss glaciologists American taxonomists
Louis Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis (d ...
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Foreign Members of the Royal Society Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Museum founders Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Copley Medal Wollaston Medal winners Swiss emigrants to the United States 19th-century Swiss geologists People from the canton of Fribourg Heidelberg University alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni University of Erlangen-Nuremberg alumni University of Neuchâtel faculty Harvard University faculty Cornell University faculty University of Zurich alumni Swiss Protestants History of Science articles needing expert attention Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium Proponents of scientific racism Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities