Robert Edwards Carter Stearns (1 February 1827,

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

– 27 July 1909, Los Angeles) was an American

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 ...

. Robert Stearns was passionate about

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

in his youth. Later he specialised in conchology, especially that of the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the Contiguous United States, contig ...

. He was a member of the Fisheries Commission (1882–1884) and Secretary of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

(Berkeley) (1874–1882). He became Assistant Curator of Molluscs at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

(1885–1892). Stearns married Mary Ann Libby on 28 March 1850. They had one child, a daughter.

References

*Biography by Gerald J. Rosenzweig in Smithsonian Institution Archives. *Robert Tucker Abbott (1974). ''American Malacologists. A National Register of Professional and Amateur Malacologists and Private Shell Collectors and Biographies of Early American Mollusk Workers Born Between 1618 and 1900'', American Malacologists (Falls Church, Virginia) : iv + 494 p. ) American malacologists 1909 deaths 1827 births Scientists from Boston 19th-century American zoologists University of California, Berkeley people Smithsonian Institution people {{zoologist-stub