Everything about Robert Kennicott totally explained
Robert Kennicott (
November 13,
1835 -
May 13,
1866) was an
American naturalist.
Biography
Kennicott was born in
New Orleans and grew up in "West Northfield" (now
Glenview),
Illinois, a town north of the then nascent city of
Chicago.
In 1853, Kennicott began collecting and cataloging for the
Smithsonian Institution in
Washington DC when he began to correspond with
Spencer Fullerton Baird. During 1855 he surveyed and collected on the
Illinois Central Railroad Survey. In 1856, he named one of his new snake discoveries
Clonophis kirtlandi after noted naturalist
Jared P. Kirtland. Also in 1856 helped found the
Chicago Academy of Sciences and in 1857 helped found the
Northwestern University natural history museum.
In April 1859 he set off on an expedition to collect natural history specimens in the
subarctic boreal forests of northwestern
Canada in what is now the
Mackenzie and
Yukon river valleys and in the
Arctic tundra beyond. Kenicott became popular with
Hudson's Bay Company fur traders in the area and encouraged them to collect and send natural history specimens and
First Nations artifacts to the Smithsonian. He returned to Washington at the end on 1862.
From 1862 to 1864, Kennicott became part of the
Megatherium Club a group of young naturalists guided by
Spencer Fullerton Baird and
William Stimpson. Robert and his younger brother lived in the Smithsonian Castle during the American Civil War along with
Edward Drinker Cope and other noted naturalists.
While working at the
Smithsonian Institution under Assistant Secretary
Spencer F. Baird, Robert Kennicott wrote the original descriptions of many new snake taxa brought back by expeditions to the American West.
In 1864 the
Western Union Telegraph Expedition was mounted to find a possible route for a telegraph line between North America and
Russia by way of the
Bering Sea. Kennicott was selected as the scientist for this expedition, and the party of naturalists sent to assist him included
W.H. Dall.
The expedition arrived in
San Francisco in April, but disagreements between its leaders meant that little was achieved. The party moved north to
Vancouver where Kennicott suffered a period of ill health. After his recovery they moved north again to
Alaska. Kennicott died of congestive heart failure while traveling up the
Yukon River. To commemorate his efforts on behalf of science
Kennicott Glacier,
Kennicott Valley, and the
Kennicott River were named after him.
Some of his papers are maintained at
Northwestern University, others at his family home where ihs grave remains in the Kennicott Family plot in Glenview, Illinois at The Grove, which is a
National Historic Landmark.
Further Information
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