Theodore Sherman Palmer (January 26, 1868 – July 24, 1955) was an American

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

. Palmer was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

, and studied at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

. He was the son of Henry Austin and Jane Olivia (Day) Palmer, and his mother was the daughter of

Sherman Day Sherman Day (1806–1884) was born in New Haven, Connecticut and died in Berkeley, California. He attended Phillips Academy, Andover and graduated from Yale College, A.B., 1826, receiving the degree from his father, Jeremiah Day (1773–1867), ...

, granddaughter of Yale President Jeremiah Day, and the great-granddaughter of American founding father

Roger Sherman Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an American statesman, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign four of the great state papers of the United States related to the founding: the Con ...

, meaning that Palmer was Sherman's great-great grandson. In 1889, he joined the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy of the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...

under

Clinton Hart Merriam Clinton Hart Merriam (December 5, 1855 – March 19, 1942) was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the 'father of mammalogy', a ...

. In 1891 he was a member of the 1891 Death Valley Expedition and its leader for its first 3 months. He was Assistant Chief of the Department from 1896 to 1902, and then from 1910 to 1914. He became interested in the legislation affecting wildlife, leading a branch of the organization to deal with it from 1902 to 1910 and from 1914 to 1916. He wrote the preliminary draft of the treaty for protection of birds migrating between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

and the United States (1916), and was Chairman of the Committee which prepared the first regulations under the

Migratory Bird Treaty Act The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA), codified at (although §709 is omitted), is a United States federal law, first enacted in 1918 to implement the convention for the protection of migratory birds between the United States and Canada . ...

(1918). He retired in 1933. Palmer was a member of about 25 North American and 4 foreign scientific or conservation organizations. He was vice-president of the

American Society of Mammalogists The American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) was founded in 1919. Its primary purpose is to encourage the study of mammals, and professions studying them. There are over 4,500 members of this society, and they are primarily professional scientists w ...

from 1928 to 1934, and a co-founder of the

National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...

. Palmer is commemorated in the scientific names of two North American lizards: '' Uta palmeri'' and '' Elgaria coerulea palmeri''. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Palmer, T.S.", p. 200).

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Lives of the Dead: Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Theodore Sherman PalmerTheodore Sherman Palmer Photograph CollectionFind A GraveT.S. Palmer PapersSherman/Day/Palmer Family TreeGranite Banking House of Palmer & Day, Gold Hill, Nevada Territory
1868 births 1955 deaths American zoologists American ornithologists American conservationists University of California, Berkeley alumni {{US-zoologist-stub

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