Norman Wallace Lermond (July 27, 1861 – Spring 1944) was an American naturalist and

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

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 Maine's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Maine. Covering , it comprises nearly 80% of the state's total land area. The district comprises most of the land area north of the Portland and Augusta metro ...

for the Populists, finishing in third place with 3.63% of the vote. In 1900, Lermond ran for

Governor of Maine The governor of Maine is the head of government of the U.S. state of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts and the governor of Massachusetts was chief executive. The current governor of Maine is Ja ...

, becoming the first socialist candidate for governor in Maine history. He lost to

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

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 and

English High School of Boston The English High School of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, is one of the first public high schools in America, founded in 1821. Originally called The English Classical School, it was renamed The English High School upon its first relocation ...

. 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 The New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE) was a railroad connecting southern New York State with Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and Boston, Massachusetts. It operated under that name from 1873 to 1893. Prior to 1873 it was ...

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 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 these ...

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 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 Equality Colony was a United States socialist colony founded in Skagit County, Washington (U.S. state), Washington by a political organization known as the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth in 1897. It was meant to serve as a model which ...

in the state of Washington with the intent of socialism taking over the state and then the country. According to the

Maine Historical Society The Maine Historical Society is the official state historical society of Maine. It is located at 489 Congress Street in downtown Portland. The Society currently operates the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, a National Historic Landmark, Longfellow Ga ...

he called his local union Utopia Park. He was inspired by

Edward Bellamy Edward Bellamy (March 26, 1850 – May 22, 1898) was an American author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel ''Looking Backward''. Bellamy's vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of numerou ...

's ''Equality'' and in the five months he spent in

Edison, Washington Edison is a census-designated place (CDP) in Skagit County, Washington, United States. The population was 133 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Mount Vernon–Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. History First settled ...

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 Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, and dredged for shells off the coast of

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 ...

. He studied nature in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

and

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, 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 Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

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

Lermond organized and directed the Knox Academy of Arts and Sciences, 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

. 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, and

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

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 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 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 ...

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''. The Lermond shell collection was acquired by

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanthr ...

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

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