R. Tucker Abbott
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Robert Tucker Abbott (September 28, 1919 - November 3, 1995) was an American conchologist and malacologist and the author of more than 30 books on malacology. Abbott was one of the most prominent conchologists of his time and brought conchology to the public with his works American Seashells, 1974, Seashells of the World, 1962, and The Kingdom of the Seashell, 1972. He was an active member of the American Malacological Union and Conchologists of America.
Tucker Abbott was born in Watertown, Massachusetts. His interest in seashells began early; he collected them as a boy and started a museum with a friend in his basement. He graduated from Harvard University in 1942. During World War II, Abbott was first a Navy bomber pilot and later worked for the Medical Research Unit, doing research on schistosomiasis. He documented the life cycle of the schistosome in the Oncomelania, a small brown freshwater snail that he studied in the rice fields of the Yangtze valley.
After World War II, he worked at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (1944-1954) as Assistant Curator and Associate Curator of the Department of Mollusks. During this time, he earned his Master's and Ph.D. at George Washington University and wrote the first edition of American Seashells. He then went to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. He was chair of the Department of Mollusks and held the Pilsbry Chair of Malacology. In 1969, Abbott accepted the duPont Chair of Malacology at the Delaware Museum of Natural History. He also headed the Department of Mollusks and was Assistant Director.
He was the Founding Director of the The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum on Sanibel Island until his death, from pulmonary disease, in 1995. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
