Herbert Huntingdon Smith or Herbert Huntington Smith (January 21, 1851 in
Manlius, New York – March 22, 1919 in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population o ...
) was an American
naturalist and amateur
conchologist who worked on the
flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...
and
fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...
of
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. He wrote ''Brazil, the Amazons and the coast'' (C. Scribner's Sons, 1879) and ''Do Rio de Janeiro á Cuyabá: Notas de um naturalista'' (1922).
He first went to Brazil in 1870 on the
Morgan expedition led by
Charles Frederick Hartt. He returned to stay in
Santarém from 1874 to 1876, and then spent a year exploring the
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
and
Tapajós
The Tapajós ( pt, Rio Tapajós ) is a river in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon Rainforest and is a major tributary of the Amazon River. When combined with the Juruena River, the Tapajós is approximately long. It is one of the largest clearw ...
Rivers.
Back in the United States, he began working for
Scribner's Magazine
''Scribner's Magazine'' was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. ''Scribner's Magazine'' was the second magazine out of the Scribner's firm, after the publication of ' ...
, writing on Brazil and frequently returning, once with the artist
James Wells Champney. In 1880 he married Amelia "Daisy" Woolworth, also a naturalist. They lived in Brazil until 1886, travelling widely and visiting
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
but spending most time at
Chapada dos Guimarães
Chapada dos Guimarães is a municipality located in central Brazil, 62 km from the city of Cuiabá, the capital of Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the ...
, where intensive collecting (especially of insects) resulted in the discovery of many new species. After a few months in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
, they returned to the United States.
The insect collections were purchased by
William Jacob Holland
Rev William Jacob Holland FRSE LLD (August 16, 1848 – December 13, 1932) was the eighth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh (1891–1901) and Director of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. He was an accomplished zoologist and paleonto ...
and
Frederick DuCane Godman
Frederick DuCane Godman DCL FRS FLS FGS FRGS FES FZS MRI FRHS (15 January 1834 – 19 February 1919) was an English lepidopterist, entomologist and ornithologist. He was one of the twenty founding members of the British Ornithologists' ...
. In 1889 Smith collected in Mexico for Godman, the results appearing in ''Biologia Centrali-Americana'', with one route taking him from Mexico City down through Moreleos and Guerrero states to Acapulco on the Pacific, and another trip for the region of Southern Veracruz and Tabasco on the Atlantic. He was then commissioned by the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
to collect in the West Indies (
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea w ...
,
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
and the
Windward Islands
french: Îles du Vent
, image_name =
, image_caption = ''Political'' Windward Islands. Clockwise: Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada.
, image_alt =
, locator_map =
, location = Caribbean Sea No ...
, 1889–1895). He then became Curator at the
Carnegie Museum.
In 1898-1902 he collected in
Colombia for the
American Museum of Natural History, where two of his letters are kept,
AMNH Research Library, Manuscripts and Personal Papers
/ref> resuming curatorship of the Carnegie Museum on his return.
The couple then moved to Alabama, where they gathered freshwater and land mollusks to supply a "Shell Syndicate" consisting mainly of private collectors. Herbert Smith's abilities were eventually recognized by Eugene Allen Smith, the State Geologist of Alabama, and he was hired on as Curator of the Alabama Museum of Natural History
__NOTOC__
The Alabama Museum of Natural History is the state's natural history museum, located in Smith Hall at the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa. The oldest museum in the state, it was founded in 1831. The exhibits depict the natur ...
in 1910.
The very many new species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
collected by Herbert Huntingdon and Amelia "Daisy" W. Smith were described by Frederick DuCane Godman and Herbert Druce
Herbert Druce, FLS (14 July 1846, in London – 11 April 1913, in London) was an English entomologist.
His collections were acquired by Frederick DuCane Godman (1834–1919), Osbert Salvin (1835–1898), and James John Joicey (1870–1932) b ...
( Lepidoptera); Samuel Wendell Williston
Samuel Wendell Williston (July 10, 1852 – August 30, 1918) was an American educator, entomologist, and paleontologist who was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially (by running), rather than arboreally (by leaping from tr ...
( Diptera); William Harris Ashmead
William Harris Ashmead was an American entomologist born on 19 September 1855 at Philadelphia. He died 17 October 1908 at Washington D.C.
After his studies in Philadelphia, Ashmead worked for the publisher J. B. Lippincott & Co. Later, he settl ...
and Ezra Townsend Cresson
Ezra Townsend Cresson, also Ezra Townsend senior (18 June 1838, in Byberry – 19 April 1926, in Swarthmore) was an American entomologist who specialised in the Hymenoptera order of insects. He wrote ''Synopsis of the families and genera of the H ...
( Hymenoptera); George Charles Champion ( Coleoptera); Philip Reese Uhler
Philip Reese Uhler (June 3, 1835 – October 21, 1913) was an American librarian and entomologist who specialized in Hemiptera, an insect order commonly known as true bugs. He was considered America's foremost expert on this group and was widely ...
and William Lucas Distant
William Lucas Distant (12 November 1845 Rotherhithe – 4 February 1922 Wanstead) was an English entomologist.
Biography Early years
Distant was born in Rotherhithe, the son of whaling captain Alexander Distant Rao, B.R. Subba (1998) ''Histor ...
( Hemiptera).
Smith's death was tragic. On his walk to work at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, the deaf naturalist, who had recently endured a bout of influenza, was hit by a train. The spot on the University of Alabama
The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...
campus was known for many years as "Smith's Crossing."
Some of Smith's papers are preserved in the collections of the Geological Survey of Alabama
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
. Unfortunately, the current whereabouts of his field notes are unknown.
Amelia (Daisy) W. Smith
Herbert Smith's collections were, following his marriage, made jointly with his wife Daisy, an expert collector, specimen preparator; and taxidermist
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proc ...
. Usually called Daisy, she was the daughter of New York missionaries. The couple had one son.
Bibliography
* Smith. H. H. 1912. ''Directions for collecting land shells''.
*Osborn, H. 1937 ''Fragments of Entomological History Including Some Personal Recollections of Men and Events''. Columbus, Ohio, Published by the Author.
*Osborn, H. 1952 ''A Brief History of Entomology Including Time of Demosthenes and Aristotle to Modern Times with over Five Hundred Portraits''. Columbus, Ohio, The Spahr & Glenn Company.
References
External links
*
University of Illinois info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Herbert Huntingdon
1851 births
1919 deaths
American entomologists
American naturalists
Brazilian explorers
People from Manlius, New York
Scientists from New York (state)