John Gould Anthony (17 May 1804, in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
– 16 October 1877, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
) was an American
naturalist who became an expert on
malacology, the study of
mollusks. Anthony was in charge of the
conchology
Conchology () is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs; however, malacology is the study of molluscs as whole organisms, whereas conchology is confined to the study of their shells. It includ ...
(now malacology) department of
Harvard's
Museum of Comparative Zoology
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
for over a decade.
Biography
His school education was slight, and was entirely discontinued when he became 12 years of age. Business pursuits then occupied his attention.
[
] He probably first became a clerk for a mercantile concern. Throughout his life, his handwriting was in the classic clerk's or
copperplate style. In 1832, he married Anna Whiting Rhodes of
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
, and in 1835 the family moved to Cincinnati, where fossil mollusks were plentiful and accessible. He and his wife had nine children.
They remained in Cincinnati for 35 years, where John Gould actively engaged in commercial occupations
[ — working in a firm making silver plate, as an independent account, as a partner in a bookselling and publishing firm. The year they arrived in Cincinnati, he joined the Western Academy of Natural Sciences, a group of serious amateurs.][ His interest in natural history developed.][
His publications attracted the attention of Louis Agassiz, and in 1863 he was asked to take charge of the conchological department of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where he remained until his death. He accompanied Agassiz on the Thayer Expedition to Brazil in 1865. Anthony was recognized as an authority on the American land and freshwater mollusca.][ He spent most of his time at Harvard sorting and mounting specimens.][
]
Writings
* ''A New Trilobite (Ceratocephala ceralepta)'' (1838)
* ''Fossil Encrinite'' (1838)
* ''Description of a New Fossil (Calymene Bucklandii)'' (1839)
* ''Descriptions of Three New Species of Shells'' (1839)
* ''Description of Two New Species of Anculotus'' (1839)
* ''Two Species of Fossil Asterias in the Blue Limestone of Cincinnati'', with G. Graham and W. P. James (1846)
* ''Description of New Fluviate Shells of the Genus Melania, Lam., from the Western States of North America'' (1854)
* ''Descriptions of New Species of American Fluviate Gasteropods'' (1861)
* ''Descriptions of Two New Species of Monocondytoca'' (1865)
* ''Description of a New Exotic Melania'' (1865)
* ''Description of a New Species of Shells'' (1865)
* ''Descriptions of New American Fresh-Water Shells'' (1866)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anthony, John Gould
1804 births
1877 deaths
American naturalists
Harvard University staff
American malacologists