Charles Cleveland Nutting (May 25, 1858 – January 23, 1927 in Iowa City, Iowa) was an American

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

, born in

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. He graduated from Blackburn University (1880) and received the

M. A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree from the same institution in 1882. He conducted various zoological expeditions—in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

for the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

(1882–84), in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

(1885), on the

Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...

(1891)—and was naturalist of the ''Albatross'' Hawaiian expedition in 1902. He was

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

of zoology and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the Museum of Natural History of the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

from 1886 to 1890 and thereafter was head of his department. Nutting's most important publications are systematic papers dealing with marine hydroids, which appeared in the reports of the United States Commission of Fisheries and elsewhere and were reprinted, especially ''American Hydroids'' (part i, 1900; part iii, 1915). In this work Nutting described 124 new species and beautifully illustrated his monograph on American hydroids. He is commemorated in the names of a number of animals, including Nutting's flycatcher ''Myiarchus nuttingi'' and the Nicaraguan seed-finch ''Oryzoborus nuttingi''. As museum director, Nutting was successful in attracting support from donors, politicians, university students and the public. He organized and lead expeditions to exotic destinations, always bringing home specimens, photographs and stories to his supporters.

Publications

* 1900-15. ''The American hydroids''. Smithsonian Institution. United States National Museum. Special bulletin. 3 vols. Washington: Govt. Print. Off.First two volumes
online available at

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 ...

All three volumes
at

HathiTrust Digital Library HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

Notes

Sources

University of Iowa Natural History Museum: Our first 100 years.
* * This article incorporates text from the second edition of ''

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

'' vol. 17 (1916)
p. 316
1858 births 1927 deaths University of Iowa faculty American curators American zoologists American naturalists People from Jacksonville, Illinois {{US-zoologist-stub