Frank Howe Bradley (September 20, 1838 – March 27, 1879) was an American geologist. Bradley, son of Abijah and Eliza Collis (Townsend) Bradley, was born in

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, Conn., September 20, 1838 He graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1863. Through his undergraduate course he was partially employed in teaching in Gen. Russel's Collegiate and Commercial Institute in New Haven, at which school he was himself fitted for college. In the year 1863-4 he taught in Hartford, Conn., and spent the next year as a student in the Chemical Laboratory of the

Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, ...

. His tastes early led him to the study of geology, and up to this time his vacations had been largely spent in the field in making collections of fossils. In the summer of 1865 he went to the

Isthmus of Darien An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus ...

, and spent a year in that vicinity, obtaining large collections of corals and other zoological specimens, partly for the Yale Museum. During 1867 and 1868, he was assistant geologist in the Illinois survey, and in November of the latter year, became Professor of Natural Sciences in Hanover College, at

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Ind. In September 1869, he left this position to accept the Professorship of Mineralogy and Geology in East Tennessee University, at Knoxville, and while there made some valuable geological explorations, which included the discovery of the fern named for him, ''

asplenium bradleyi ''Asplenium bradleyi'', commonly known as Bradley's spleenwort or cliff spleenwort, is a rare epipetric fern of east-central North America. Named after Professor Frank Howe Bradley, who first collected it in Tennessee, it may be found infrequen ...

''. He resigned this position in 1875, with the hope of so adding to his resources that he might be able with freedom to pursue his favorite science; and to this end he undertook the development of a gold mine in Northern Georgia, where he met his death from the falling of a bank in a gold mine, near Nacoochee, Ga., March 27, 1879 Professor Bradley was married, July 15, 1867, to Sarah M., daughter of Samuel P. Bolles, Esq, of New Haven. She survived him, with one daughter, two children having died earlier, and one on the day of his own death.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Frank Howe 1838 births 1879 deaths Scientists from New Haven, Connecticut Yale College alumni Hanover College faculty University of Tennessee faculty American geologists