Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches
Stejneger, Leonhard Hess (Norway-United
States 1851-1943)
zoology, natural history
from Wikipedia.org |
Stejneger, who had always had an interest in zoology, emigrated to the
United States in 1881 when the family business went under in Norway. He
soon attracted the attention of Spencer Baird at the Smithsonian and began
working under the supervision of the ornithologist Robert Ridgway. He
moved steadily up the ladder, eventually reaching the title of head curator
of biology. Stejneger specialized in vertebrate natural history studies;
although he started out working primarily on birds he gained his greatest
reputation with reptiles and amphibians, also studying mammals. His publications
exceeded four hundred in total. His stints in the field included visits
to the Commander Islands, Kamchatka, Puerto Rico, the Alps, the U. S.
Southwest, the South Dakota badlands, and Japan. He was also heavily engaged
in administrative work, conservation efforts, and society work, and managed
to keep active all the way into his tenth decade of life. |
Life Chronology
--born in Bergen, Norway, on 30 October 1851.
--1871: first publications, in the Journal für Ornithologie
--1875: graduates with law degree from the University of Kristiania, Oslo
--1881: emigrates to the United States; starts working at the National
Museum of Natural History
--1882-1883: studies seals in the Commander Islands for the U. S. Fish
Commission
--1884-1889: assistant curator of birds, National Museum of Natural History
--1887: becomes U. S. citizen
--1889: made first curator of reptiles and batrachians at the National
Museum of Natural History
--1889: collects reptiles and amphibians with C. Hart Merriam in Arizona;
studies life zones there
--1895: again visits the Commander Islands for the U. S. Fish Commission
--1896, 1897: named to the International Fur Seal Commission
--1900: collects reptiles and amphibians in Puerto Rico
--1900: earns a gold medal at the Paris Exposition for his work on fur
seals management and conservation
--1901-1935: delegate to the International Zoological Congress seven times
--1906: made a Knight First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St.
Olaf
--1907: publishes his Herpetology
of Japan and Adjacent Territory
--1907-1908: president, Biological Society of Washington
--1911-1943: head curator of biology, U. S. National Museum (exempted
from retirement by special Presidential order in 1921)
--1919: president, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
--1922: again visits the Commander Islands, this time for the Dept. of
Commerce
--1923: elected to the National Academy of Sciences
--1931: made honorary president for life of the American Society of Ichthyologists
and Herpetologists
--1939: made a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olaf
--dies at Washington, D.C., on 28 February 1943.
For Additional
Information, See:
--Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.),
Vol. 24 (1947).
--American National Biography, Vol. 20 (1999).
--National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 14 (1910).
--Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. 13 (1976).
--Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and
Environmentalists (1997).
--Systematic
Zoology,
Vol. 13(4) (1964): 243-249.
--Copeia, (3)
(1931): 75-83.
*
*
*
*
*
Copyright 2005 by Charles H. Smith. All rights
reserved.
http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/chronob/STEJ1851.htm
Return to Home/Alphabetical Listing by Name Return to Listing by Country Return to Listing by Discipline
|