Men of Science in Texas, 1820-1880

Authors

S. W. Geiser, Southern Methodist University

Publication Date

10-1-1958

Abstract

Recently there came back into my hands a lent-and forgotten-dossier of 1929 correspondence with Swiss and German universities and libraries-a correspondence dealing with the Swiss naturalist, Jacob Boll, who spent the last years of his life in Texas. His life, with that of other naturalists, is sketched in my Naturalists of the Frontier (1937, 1948). Such a recovery reminds one of the passing of time, and a long-made promise to put into print an account of the men of science (sit venia verbo) of Early Texas. Most of them were men of other trades, professions, what-you-will, of good amateur standing; but there was a generous sprinkling of highly competent workers. These were the men who by their work made Texan science and Texan natural history coincurrent in the learned world. In my Scientific Study and Exploration in Early Texas (1939) I listed 340 of these "naturalists," with brief thumbnail sketches. Subsequently, the late President Umphrey Lee of this university made possible twelve months' study in great eastern libraries. To him I owe more than is easily expressed.

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Recommended Citation

Geiser, S. W. (1958) "Men of Science in Texas, 1820-1880," Field and Laboratory: Vol. 26 : No. 3.
Available at: https://scholar.smu.edu/fieldandlab/vol26/iss3/6