Isaac Lea (March 4, 1792 – December 8, 1886) was an American publisher,

conchologist Conchology, from Ancient Greek κόγχος (''kónkhos''), meaning "cockle (bivalve), cockle", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of mollus ...

and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

. He was a partner in the publishing businesses Matthew Carey & Sons; Carey, Lea & Carey; Carey, Lea & Blanchard; and Lea & Blanchard. He authored multiple books describing the freshwater mussel

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Unio'' and named 1,842 species of fifty genera of freshwater and land mollusks. He sparked a scientific controversy amongst geologists when he published about his discovery of fossilized footprints in Mount Carbon, Pennsylvania, that he incorrectly proposed were from a

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

from the

Devonian Period The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at million years ago ( Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding C ...

over 360 million years old. The fossil has since been identified as that of an

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

from the

Mississippian Age The Mississippian ( ), also known as Lower Carboniferous or Early Carboniferous, is a subperiod in the geologic timescale or a subsystem of the geologic record. It is the earlier of two subperiods of the Carboniferous period lasting from rou ...

over 330 million years old. He served as president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia from 1858 to 1863 and of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

s in 1860.

Early life and education

Lea was born on March 4, 1792, in Wilmington, Delaware. His grandparents, John and Hannah Hopton Lea, emigrated to the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...

with

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...

in 1699. His parents were James J. Lea, a merchant, and Elizabeth Gibson Lea. He was studying to be a physician, but began working at his brother John's import business in Philadelphia at the age of 15. He was close friends with Lardner Vanuxem as a child and the two developed an interest in geology and were exposed to the mineralogical collection of Adam Seybert. Lea was born a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

but forsook his faith's traditional pacifism and joined the 7th Company of the 24th Pennsylvania Militia during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

. The unit served as a home guard and never saw action, however he was still expelled from the Religious Society of Friends. In 1820, he married Frances Ann Carey, daughter of noted publisher

Mathew Carey Mathew Carey (January 28, 1760 – September 16, 1839) was an Irish-born American publisher and economist who lived and worked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Dublin, he had engaged in the cause of parliamentary reform, and in America, attract ...

. He received an LL.D. degree from Harvard in 1853.

Business career

His father-in-law Mathew Carey founded the Matthew Carey & Company publishing company and brought his son Henry Charles Carey and Lea in as partners and changed the company name to Matthew Carey & Sons. Matthew retired in 1824 and another of his sons joined the firm and the name was changed to Carey, Lea & Carey. In 1833, William A. Blanchard was brought on as a partner and the firm was briefly known as Carey, Lea & Blanchard until Henry Charles Carey retired in 1836 and the firm name was changed again to Lea & Blanchard. The publishing house became one of the most successful in America, and was known for publishing items such as ''The Encyclopedia Americana'' and a dictionary of German lexicon. In the early 1830s, he became a partner in the Dauphin and Susquehanna Coal Company which owned 42,000 acres on the eastern bank of the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...

. In 1851, Isaac retired from the publishing business and made his son Henry Charles Lea a full partner and the name was changed to Lea Brothers.

Scientific career

Lea worked with Lardner Vanuxem during his work on the geology of New York. Many geological histories are defined by mollusk fossils which led Lea to also study living mollusks. In 1815, Lea joined the Academy of Natural Sciences and published his first paper on minerals found in the Philadelphia area in 1817. Lea devoted his leisure time to natural history, both collecting objects and publishing books (some illustrated by his son Henry Charles Lea).''

New International Encyclopedia ''The New International Encyclopedia'' was an American encyclopedia first published in 1902 by Dodd, Mead & Co. It descended from the ''International Cyclopaedia'' (1884) and was updated in 1906, 1914 and 1926. History ''The New Internatio ...

'' He was especially interested in freshwater and land

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

s. He studied mollusks from the Ohio River submitted to the Academy of Natural Sciences by Major

Stephen Harriman Long Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most pro ...

and shells collected by his brother near Cincinnati. Lea described these specimens in the publication ''Description of Six New Specimens of the Genus Unio'' which he presented at the American Philosophical Society in 1827 and was the first of multiple papers on '' Unio''. For 50 years he delivered and published 279 scientific articles, books and essays. He named 1,842 species of fifty genera of freshwater and land mollusks, however many of the species he described are not distinct. His publications on geology included a range of topics including coal, earthquakes, fossils and minerals. In 1849, Lea presented a paper on fossilized footprints he discovered in red sandstone in Mount Carbon, Pennsylvania. Lea contended the tracks were reptilian and that due to the strata of rock where the footprints were found, they were from the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

Period between 360 and 408 million years old and constituted a new species that he named ''Sauropus primaevus''. The finding sparked a controversy in the geology community and the date of the fossil was challenged by Henry Darwin Rogers, the state geologist of Pennsylvania. Noted geologist

Louis 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 recei ...

proposed that the footprints were not those of a reptile but rather those of an amphibian. The footprints have since been identified as coming from an amphibian known as ''Palaeosauropus primaevus'' from the

over 330 million years ago. He was a member and vice-president of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

(elected in 1828) and also served as president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1858–1863), both based in Philadelphia. Lea served as president of the

in 1860.

Family

His two sons, Henry Charles Lea and Matthew Carey Lea achieved distinction in scholarly fields and the family publishing business. The brothers married the Jaudon sisters and their children also joined the family business, which ultimately became

Lea & Febiger Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is an American imprint of the American Dutch publishing conglomerate Wolters Kluwer. It was established by the acquisition of Williams & Wilkins and its merger with J.B. Lippincott Company in 1998. Under the L ...

. Henry Charles Lea (September 19, 1825 – October 24, 1909) was an American historian, civic reformer, and political activist in Philadelphia. Mathew Carey Lea (1823–1897) was a lawyer as well as founder of mechanochemistry and early photographer.

Death and legacy

He died on December 8, 1886, in Philadelphia and was interred in

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery, also called Laurel Hill East to distinguish it from the affiliated West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, Bala Cynwyd, is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls, Philadelphia, East Falls neighborhood ...

. In 1829

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

wrote a poem dedicated to Lea titled "To Isaac Lea". Three mollusks were named in his honor, '' Crenella leana'' Dall, 1897, '' Lymnaea leai'' F.C. Baker, 1907 and '' Periploma leanum'' (Conrad, 1831). The

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

at Washington now has his immense collection of

freshwater mussel Freshwater bivalves are molluscs of the order Bivalvia that inhabit freshwater ecosystems. They are one of the two main groups of freshwater molluscs, along with freshwater snails. The majority of bivalve molluscs are saltwater species that l ...

s from the family

Unionidae The Unionidae are a Family (biology), family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionida, the bivalve molluscs sometimes known as river mussels, or simply as unionids. The range of distribution for this family is world-wide. It is a ...

, as well as other collections. The

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historic research facility headquartered on Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chron ...

has the records of Lea & Febiger, as well as predecessor companies. Two slabs of rock containing the fossilized footprints and plaster casts of the footprints discovered by Lea are in the collections of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Publications

* Lea, I. 1818. An account of the minerals at present known to exist within the vicinity of Philadelphia. ''Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' 1, 462–482.
BHL link
* (1823) Complete, Historical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atla

* (1827–1874). ''Observations on the Genus Unio''. 13 volumes. *
Contributions to Geology
', Carey, Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1833 * (1837). "Observations on the Naiades". '' Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'' 5 * (1838). ''Synopsis of the Family of Naiades'' * Lea I. (1838). "Description of New Freshwater and Land Shells". '' Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'' 6
1
��154. * *
A Synopsis of the Family of Naiades
', Blanchard and Lea, Philadelphia, 1852 *
On the Fossil Foot-marks in the Red Sandstone of Pottsville, Pennsylvania
', self-published, Philadelphia, 1852 *
Observations on the Genus Unio, Together with Descriptions of New Genera and Species in the Family Unionidae, Volumes 6-7
', J. Kay, Philadelphia, 1857 *
Check Lists of the Shells of North America
', Smithsonian Institution, Washington, June, 1860 Molluscan

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

named by Lea include: * '' Euglandina vanuxemensis'' (Lea, 1834) – a carnivorous land snail * '' Unio lawii'' (Lea, 1871) – named for Annie Law

Citations

Sources

External links

*
Grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lea, Isaac 1792 births 1886 deaths 19th-century American geologists 19th-century American male writers 19th-century Quakers American businesspeople in the coal industry American company founders American publishers (people) American science writers American Quakers Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Conchologists Members of the American Philosophical Society People from Pennsylvania in the War of 1812 Scientists from Philadelphia Writers from Philadelphia Writers from Wilmington, Delaware