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Norman Wallace Lermond (July 27, 1861 – Spring 1944) was an American naturalist and socialist activist. Lermond helped found the People's Party (the so-called "Populists") in Maine. and in 1892, Lermond ran for the U.S. Congress from Maine's 2nd congressional district for the Populists, finishing in third place with 3.63% of the vote. In 1900, Lermond ran for Governor of Maine, becoming the first socialist candidate for governor in Maine history. He lost to Republican
John Fremont Hill John Fremont Hill (October 29, 1855 – March 16, 1912) was an American businessman and politician. He served in a number of positions in Maine government, including as the 45th Governor of Maine from 1901 to 1905. Hill was born in Eliot, Maine ...
.


Biography

Lermond was born on July 27, 1861, in
Warren, Maine Warren is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,865 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of East Warren, Warren and South Warren, the latter home to the Maine State Prison and minimum security Bolduc Correcti ...
to Omar W. and Rebecca (Todd) Lermond. His family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1872 and he was sent to a religious boarding school in
Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
. He later attended Dudley Grammar School in
Roxbury Roxbury may refer to: Places ;Canada * Roxbury, Nova Scotia * Roxbury, Prince Edward Island ;United States * Roxbury, Connecticut * Roxbury, Kansas * Roxbury, Maine * Roxbury, Boston, a municipality that was later integrated into the city of Bosto ...
and English High School of Boston. After his schooling he worked in the Bartlett book store and then worked a year for a trade journal ''The Boston Telegram'' in New York. He worked for the New York and New England Railroad for several years as an accountant. He was noted to be a farmer and helped found the Thomaston Farmers' Exchange in 1880 and helped organize the New England Milk Association. Lermond started to write an autobiography but died before it was completed. His papers were found with the Department of Mollusks of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology and was published with annotations. Lermond was buried, at his request, in a pine box under a large pine tree in an unmarked grave at the entrance to his
arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...
in Maine.


Socialist

Lermond was notable as a founder of the
Socialist Party of Maine The Socialist Party of Maine was a multi-tendency socialist political party in the U.S. state of Maine. During its first incarnation in the early 20th century, prominent members included naturalist Norman Wallace Lermond of Warren, artist Charles ...
in the 1890s. He envisioned "local unions" (communities) establishing the first one at what became the Knox Arboretum. He helped create the Brotherhood of the Co-operative Commonwealth and the Equality Colony in the state of Washington with the intent of socialism taking over the state and then the country. According to the Maine Historical Society he called his local union Utopia Park. He was inspired by Edward Bellamy's ''Equality'' and in the five months he spent in Edison, Washington helping establish the Equality Colony, he helped found the socialist newspaper ''Equality''.


Naturalist

Lermond remained an amateur naturalist but was noted as being the "...foremost naturalist in New England and labored tirelessly to interest and organize both professionals and amateurs alike to study the natural history of Maine." In addition to his observations around Boston and Maine, "He studied flora and fauna of the Pacific Coast, and in the states of Arkansas and Tennessee, and dredged for shells off the coast of Florida. He studied nature in the Bahamas and Cuba, and camped in the
Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of tropical climate, tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orland ...
for a period of three weeks with a party of eminent scientists doing research work. For several months at two different times, he was assistant in the Department of Mollusks at Harvard College."


The Knox Arboretum, Knox Academy of Arts and Sciences, and ''Maine Naturalist''

Lermond organized and directed the
Knox Academy of Arts and Sciences Knox may refer to: Places United States * Fort Knox, a United States Army post in Kentucky ** United States Bullion Depository, a high security storage facility commonly called Fort Knox * Fort Knox (Maine), a fort located on the Penobscot River i ...
, established in 1913, and established the Knox Arboretum which was roughly sixty acres of land with approximately 3500' of tidal frontage and a large brick house at the junction the
St. George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...
and Oyster Rivers in
Warren, Maine Warren is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,865 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of East Warren, Warren and South Warren, the latter home to the Maine State Prison and minimum security Bolduc Correcti ...
. The arboretum also housed a library and herbarium. Also a Charles Creighten's collection of birds, local Indian relics, butterflies, minnows, and tourmaline. The property was offered to the State of Maine and was accepted at first and funded but in 1937 the eighty-eighth state legislature declined acceptance of the deed to the Knox Arboretum writing that the arboretum "...is one of the outstanding attractions in the state..." but would cause expenses at a time the citizens demanded no unnecessary expenses and there was a question about the quality of the title. The Knox Academy has such members as
John Harvey Lovell John Harvey Lovell was an internationally known amateur American naturalist and author who focused his studies on the interaction of flowers and bees and is credited with recording 32 bee species in southern Maine and demonstrating that bees ca ...
, and Marie Curie became an honorary Life Member on June 18, 1921. Lermond founded and edited the Knox Academy's journal, ''The Maine Naturalist''. Upon his death in 1944 the arboretum and Knox Academy ended.


American Malacological Union

Lermond was the founder of the American
Malacological Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...
Union in 1931. Lermond initially called the group the American Association of Conchologists but that name had been used previously by a group started by John Campbell of Philadelphia in 1890. The name was changed at the first meeting April 1931 in Philadelphia. Today the group is the American Malacological Society. In his study of
mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000  extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...
, Lermond collect enough shells to fill "100 cases" and was estimated by the Smithsonian Institution in 1940s to be valued at $50,000. One type was a new discovery and was named in honor of him, ''Caecum lermondi'' but was found to have been previously identified as ''
Meioceras nitidum ''Meioceras nitidum'' is a species of minute sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk or micromollusk A micromollusk is a shelled mollusk which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied ...
''. The Lermond shell collection was acquired by Colby College in
Waterville, Maine Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. The city is home to Colby College and Thomas College. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census the populatio ...
to be put on display, but then went to the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard University) and the
Delaware Museum of Natural History The Delaware Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) is a museum located since January 1, 2022. The museum was founded in 1957 by John Eleuthere du Pont near Greenville, Delaware; it opened in 1972 on a site near Winterthur, Delaware. It is known for i ...
.Paula M. Mikkelsen, "Seventy-Five Years of Molluscs: A History of the American Malacological Society on the Occasion of Its 75th Annual Meeting", ''American Malacological Bulletin'', Feb. 2010. 191-213. http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.4003/006.028.0215?journalCode=malb


Publications

*Editor, ''Shells of Maine: a catalogue of the land, fresh-water and marine Mollusca of Maine''. Report Commissioner of Agriculture, Augusta, Maine. 1908. 46 pp. *''Additions to the list of Maine Mollusca''. ''Nautilus'' 28(2), 1914. 18-20.


References


Further reading

*Charles A. Scontras, ''The Socialist Alternative: Utopian Experiments and the Socialist Part of Maine, 1895–1914'', Orono: The Bureau of Labor Education, University of Maine, 1985, 198 pp. *Charles A. Scontras, ''Organized Labor in Maine: War, Reaction, Depression, and the Rise of the CIO, 1914–1943'', Orono: The Bureau of Labor Education, University of Maine, 2002, 300 pp. Appendix C of the latter is entitled "Norman Wallace Lermond and His Persistent Quest for the Cooperative Commonwealth" (22 pp.). *Norman Wallace Lermond Papers, Special Collections Department, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine-Orono


External links


Digital copy of ''The Shells of Maine''Link to purchase the Autobiography of Norman Wallace Lermond, Maine's Naturalist/SocialistThe Maine Naturalist vol 1-2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lermond, Norman Wallace 1861 births 1944 deaths Socialist Party of America politicians from Maine People from Warren, Maine Maine Populists Conchologists