Henry Augustus Pilsbry

Henry Augustus Pilsbry

Henry Augustus Pilsbry
Born December 7, 1862(1862-12-07)
Iowa City, Iowa
Died October 26, 1957(1957-10-26) (aged 94)
Lantana, Florida
Nationality USA
Fields malacology
Institutions Academy of Natural Sciences
Alma mater University of Iowa
Academic advisors George Washington Tryon

Henry Augustus Pilsbry (7 December 1862 in Iowa City, Iowa – 26 October 1957 in Lantana, Florida) was an American biologist, malacologist and carcinologist, among other areas of study. He was a dominant presence in many fields of invertebrate taxonomy for the better part of a century.[1][2] For much of his career, his authority with respect to the classification of certain substantial groups of organisms was unchallenged: barnacles,[3][4] chitons,[5][6] North American terrestrial mollusks,[7][8][9][10] and others.

Contents

Biography

Pilsbry (frequently misspelled Pilsbury) spent his childhood and youth in Iowa. He was called "Harry" Pilsbry then, and developed an early fascination with the limited variety of mollusks he was able to find. He attended the University of Iowa, and received the Bachelor of Science degree there in 1882, but did not immediately find employment in his field of interest. Instead, Henry Pilsbry worked for publishing firms and newspapers for the next several years, but devoted most of his spare time to the study of mollusks.

In 1887, he found employment in New York City as a proofreader, but soon met George Washington Tryon, the resident expert on mollusks at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and architect and author of the on-going multi-volume Manual of Concology. This meeting led, within a few months, to Tryon's hiring Pilsbry as an assistant. He was, no doubt, impressed by the young man's talents as a proofreader, considerable expertise in technical illustration, and especially by his undeniable enthusiasm for the study of mollusks and substantial knowledge of the subject.

Less than three months after Pilsbry began his new job, George Tryon died and his new assistant, only 25 years old, perhaps to the surprise of some, inherited the titles of "Conservator of the Conchology Section" and "Editor" of the Manual of Conchology.

Pilsbry soon proved capable of prodigious efforts, and his scientific output was remarkable. During the next five years he produced hundreds of detailed pages of the Manual of Conchology, preparing many of the plates himself, and founded The Nautilus, an influential journal of malacology which has survived into the 21st century.[11] He also married during this period, to Adeline Avery. His college, the University of Iowa, honored him with a Doctor of Science degree in 1899 (and he later received two other honorary doctorates: University of Pennsylvania, 1940, and Temple University, 1941).

For almost all of the next 57 years of his long life, Henry Pilsbry spent his hours writing scientific papers, over 3,000 of them, mostly while at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Most of his longest papers were published by the Academy. The shorter ones could usually be found in The Nautilus. The large majority of his work carried only his name, although there were sometimes joint or junior authors, some of whom were more patron than scientist. It is notable that Pilsbry did not always confine himself to the several areas of study with which he was already closely associated, but rather would sometimes stray into other fields of science, from geology and paleontology to the taxonomy of brachiopods.[12][13][14]

His field work provided a steady supply of new specimens for study, dissection, and illustration, and a seemingly endless array of new species to name. Pilsbry named over 5,000 organisms; a full list was published in a 218-page volume.[15] Pilsbry performed extensive amounts of field work, and was clearly an expert in dealing with the outdoors, no matter the conditions. He collected mollusks over virtually the entire United States, and in an atlas of countries: Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Cocos Islands, Cuba, Galapagos Islands, Guatemala, Marquesas Islands, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and other locations as well. His intellectual reach extended even further, through joint efforts with other workers: especially notably Africa with Joseph Bequaert and the Japanese region with Yoichiro Hirase.

Pilsbry suffered a heart attack in late 1957 while working at the Philadelphia Academy. He seemed to recover from this serious occurrence, but died at his winter home in Florida, about a month and a half later, from a similar event.

Henry Augustus Pilsbry is buried in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, at St. Asaph's Church.

Bibliography

Manual of Conchology

Main article: George Washington Tryon#Manual_of_Conchology

Pilsbry was an assistant was of George Washington Tryon for two years, from 1887 to 1888. After Tryon's death in 1888, Pilsbry became an editor of an ongoing multi-volume Manual of Conchology. He is credited (at title page) in Manual of Conchology since volume 12 from 1890.

Selected major works

References

  1. ^ Baker H. B. (1958). "Henry Augustus Pilsbry 1862-1957". The Nautilus 71(3): 73-83. (A major source for this biography).
  2. ^ Abbott R. T. & M. E. Young M. E. (eds.) (1973). American Malacologists: A national register of professional and amateur malacologists and private shell collectors and biographies of early American mollusk workers born between 1618 and 1900. American Malacologists, Falls Church, Virginia. Consolidated/Drake Press: Philadelphia. 494 pp. ISBN 9780913792025
  3. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1907). "The Barnacles (Cirripedia) Contained in the Collections of the U.S. National Museum". Bul. United States National Museum 60: p. 122.
  4. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1916). "The Sessile Barnacles (Cirripedia) Contained in the Collections of the U.S. National Museum, including a monograph of the American species". Bul. United States National Museum 93: p. 366.
  5. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1892). Manual of Conchology; structural and systematic. Vol. XIV. Polyplacophora (chitons). Lepidopleuridae, Ischnochitonidae, Chitonidae, Mopaliidae. Philadelphia. 350 pp.
  6. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1893). Manual of Conchology; structural and systematic. Vol. XV. Polyplacophora, (chitons.) Acanthochitidae, Cryptoplacidae and appendix. Tectibranchiata. Philadelphia. 436 pp.
  7. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1939). Land Mollusca of North America north of Mexico vol. I part 1. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. pp. 1-574.
  8. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1940). Land Mollusca of North America north of Mexico vol. I part 2. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. pp. 575-994.
  9. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1946). Land Mollusca of North America north of Mexico vol. II part 1. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. pp. 1-520.
  10. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1948). Land Mollusca of North America north of Mexico vol. II part 2. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. pp. 521-1113.
  11. ^ Leal J. H. (2006). "Celebrating a long life: The Nautilus turns 120!" (PDF). Nautilus 120 (1): 1–7. http://www.shellmuseum.org/leal_nautilus_120.pdf. 
  12. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1897). "Geology of the Mussel-bearing Clays of Fish-House, New Jersey". Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 48: 567-570.
  13. ^ Pilsbry H. A. In: Wenner H. E. (1921). "Some Faunal Remains from the Triassic of York County, Pennsylvania. Mollusks". Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 73: 25-37.
  14. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1895). Catalogue of the Marine Mollusks of Japan, with Descriptions of New Species, and Notes on Others Collected by Frederick Stearns. Detroit: F. Stearns. 196 p. [includes 30 species of modern brachiopods].
  15. ^ Clench W. J. & Turner R. D. (1962). New names introduced by H. A. Pilsbry in the Mollusca and Crustacea. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Special Pub. No. 4. pp. 1–218. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qEmtdDtjhl0C. 

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