Stephen Alfred Forbes

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Stephen Alfred Forbes (1844–1930) was the first Chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey[1], a founder of aquatic ecosystem science and a dominant figure in the rise of American ecology. His publications are striking for their merger of extensive field observations with conceptual insights. Forbes believed that ecological knowledge was fundamental for human well-being.

While already famous as an economic entomologist, Forbes undertook studies of massive fish mortality in Lake Mendota, Wisconsin. He showed the connection of algae blooms and lake physics to fish kills, and embarked on a remarkable research program into the ecology of lakes and rivers. Many of his insights about lake ecology were collected in an influential paper, “The Lake as a Microcosm” (Forbes 1887). Notable for both conceptual creativity and the use of innovative quantitative methods, his work foreshadowed the ecosystem concept as well as modern ideas of behavioral ecology and food web dynamics.

Born into a pioneer family, he spent his youth near Freeport, Illinois, in Stephenson County. Beyond his common school education up to age 14, Forbes’ only formal studies at the secondary level were three months during the winter term of 1859–1860 at Beloit Academy in Wisconsin, a year at Rush Medical College in Chicago after the Civil War, and the spring term of 1871 at Normal University, Normal, Illinois.

Shortly after his fourteenth birthday in 1858, young Stephen witnessed one of the eight famous Lincoln and Douglas Debates staged throughout Illinois for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Forbes, apparently emboldened by the contentious atmosphere of the occasion, embarrassed his family and fellow citizens by publicly scolding Douglas from the audience for what he perceived as a Douglas insult to Lincoln. At the age of 17 (in 1861) Forbes would enter the Union Army with his brother and serve with distinction until the end of hostilities in 1865.

Following his year of medical school at Rush College, Forbes farmed and taught school in southern Illinois. During this time he began his first studies in natural science in his leisure hours. His first published works appeared in “American Entomologist and Botanist” in 1870, and a new plant species, which he was the first researcher to describe, was named Saxifraga forbesei in his honor.

Forbes’ work in natural history came to the attention of John Wesley Powell, then the curator of the museum of the Illinois Natural History Society in Normal. After Powell’s departure from the state to pursue studies in the American West, the Illinois Natural History Society was disbanded and metamorphosed into the state-supported State Laboratory of Natural History.

Forbes was named director of the new State Laboratory of Natural History in 1877, and in 1882 he became both the Director of the State Laboratory of Natural History and the State Entomologist. Forbes moved from Normal to Urbana in 1885 to accept a position with the Illinois Industrial University (soon to be University of Illinois). He was also able to gain approval from the state legislature to transfer the State Laboratory of Natural History and its staff, library, and research collections to Urbana. In 1917, the State Laboratory of Natural History and the Office of the State Entomologist were combined by the General Assembly, as the Illinois Natural History Survey. Stephen Forbes became director (Chief) and held this position until his death in 1930.

He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1918. As President of the Ecological Society of America in 1921, he championed the practical uses of basic ecological science for the betterment of humankind.

To Forbes the word “survey” meant more than a censusing of organisms or publishing lists showing their distribution. He felt that any study should define the relationships between living organisms and their environment—an ecological survey. This theory prevailed in his work and underlined the early research done at the Illinois Natural History Survey. In 1880 Forbes stated:

“The first indispensable requisite is a thorough knowledge of the natural order—an intelligently conducted natural history survey. Without the general knowledge which such a survey would give us, all our measures must be empirical, temporary, uncertain, and often dangerous.”

Today, the Illinois Natural History Survey is still housed on the campus of the University of Illinois[2], but is a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources[3].

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