Simon Henry Gage

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Simon Henry Gage
Born 20 May 1851
Milford Township, Otsego County, New York
Died October 20, 1944(1944-10-20) (aged 93)
Citizenship United States
Nationality American
Fields Microscopy, Histology, Natural History
Alma mater Cornell University
Known for Author of The Microscope

Simon Henry Gage (May 20, 1851 October 20, 1944) was a Professor of Anatomy, Histology, and Embryology at Cornell University and an important figure in the history of American microscopy.[1] His book, The Microscope appeared in seventeen editions. In 1931, a volume of The American Journal of Anatomy was dedicated to Gage on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.[2]

Personal life

Simon Henry Gage was born on May 20, 1851 in Milford Township, Otsego County, New York. He was the son of Henry van Tassel Gage and Lucy Ann Grover Gage.[3] Simon Henry Gage attended Charlottesville Seminary and the State Normal School at Albany. In December 1881, he married Susanna Stuart Phelps[4][5] of Morrisville, New York, one of his students, who became an accomplished embryologist. They had one son, Henry Phelps Gage, who was born in October 4, 1886. Susanna died in 1915, and in 1933, Gage married Clara Covert Starrett of Interlaken, New York.[6]

University Life

In 1873, Gage entered Cornell University and graduated in 1877 with a B. S. in Natural History after writing a thesis on the life history of the Cayuga Lake Stargazer (Cottus). As an undergraduate, Gage worked in the Department of Anatomy with Burt Green Wilder teaching in the newly introduced biology courses. In the fall of 1877, Gage became an instructor of Comparative Anatomy and Microscopy. In 1881, Gage became an Assistant Professor of Physiology and Lecturer in Microscopical Technology. In 1889, Gage became an Associate Professor of Physiology and Lecturer on Microscopical Technology and in 1893, Gage became an Associate Professor of Anatomy, Histology, and Embryology. In 1895, Gage became a Professor of Anatomy, Histology, and Embryology. In 1908, Gage retired as Professor Emeritus of Histology and Embryology.[7] Gage came out of retirement in 1918 returning to teaching as a result of the shortage of teachers caused by World War I. In addition to his work on microscopy and optic projection, Gage did research on the newt, toad, lamprey, on fat digestion and on the pancreas.[8]

In 1893, Gage and John Henry Comstock founded the Comstock Publishing Company in order to make textbooks on microscopy, histology, and entomology available at a reasonable price to students and to publish the works of Anna Botsford Comstock on nature study. In 1931, Gage gave the company to Cornell University as a gift. Gage, along with Luzerne Corville and the architect, William H. Miller, designed Stimson Hall, which housed the Cornell Medical College. In 1915, Gage and his son started a memorial fund for Susanna Phelps Gage that was used to build a room in Clara Dickson Hall, the new dormatory for women. In 1918, they endowed the Susanna Phelps Gage Endowment for research in physics. Gage served as the faculty representative to the Cornell University Board of Trustees from 1921-1922. Gage was instrumental in starting the Flower Library in the Veterinary College of Cornell University in 1897. Gage served as the responsible librarian of the Van Cleef Memorial Library of medicine in Stimson Hall from 1922-1944. Upon his death in 1944, Gage donated his brain to the Wilder Brain Collection at Cornell University where it can still be seen on the second floor of Uris Hall. Gage's personal book collection and papers can be found in the Rare and Manuscript Collections[9] of the Cornell University Library.

Microscopy

Gage was active in the American Microscopical Society since its founding. Gage was elected President of the American Microscopical Society twice, in 1895 and in 1906. Gage wrote seventeen editions of The Microscope,[10][11] a series of editions that traced the evolution of microscopy, and which included the Darkfield [12] and the Ultra-Violet [13] editions.[14][15]

Microscope by Louis Ginsberg

A lost poem, entitled, Microscope written by Louis Ginsberg, father of beat poet Allen Ginsberg, was found in a copy of the seventeenth edition of Gage's book, The Microscope in the Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell University.[16][17][18]

Publications

RICHARDS, O. W., editor (1964). Microscopy in America (1830-1945) By Simon Henry Gage. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, LXXXIII, No. 4, Supplement, October 1964, 125 p. www.jstor.org

Research papers

  • GAGE, S. H. (1880-1881) Microscopical Technology. Ithaca, New York, 54 p.
  • GAGE. S. H. (1885-1886) Notes on Histological Methods, Second edition. Andrus & Church, Ithaca, New York, 56 p. Notes on Histological Methods
  • GAGE. S. H. (1887) Notes on Histological Methods, For the Use of Students of the Anatomical Department of Cornell University, Second edition. Andrus & Church, Ithaca, New York, 32 p.
  • GAGE. S. H. (1891) The Microscope and Histology; Part I The Microscope and Microscopical Methods, Third edition. Andrus & Church, Ithaca, New York, 96 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1892) The Microscope and Histology; Part I The Microscope and Microscopical Methods, Fourth edition. James W. Queen & Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 96 p.
  • GAGE. S. H. (1893) The Lake and Brook Lampreys of New York; Especially Those of Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. Reprinted from The Wilder Quarter-Century Book, 421-493 + maps and plates.
  • GAGE. S. H. (1894) The Microscope and Histology; Part I The Microscope and Microscopical Methods, Fifth edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 165 p.
  • GAGE. S. H. (1896) The Processes of Life Revealed by the Microscope; A Plea for Physiological Histology. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 17 3-29. Also, Smithsonian Institution Report 381-396 (1896). Printed almost entirely in Science n.s. 2 209-218 (1895) and in American Monthly Microscopical Journal 16, 292-311 (1895).
  • GAGE. S. H. (1896) The Microscope and Microscopical Methods, Sixth edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 237 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1899) The Microscope; An Introduction to Microscopic Methods and to Histology, Seventh edition revised. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 237 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1901) The Microscope; An Introduction to Microscopic Methods and to Histology, Eighth edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 299 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1904) The Microscope; An Introduction to Microscopic Methods and to Histology, Ninth edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 299 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1908) The Microscope; An Introduction to Microscopic Methods and to Histology, Tenth edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 359 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1911) The Microscope; An Introduction to Microscopic Methods and to Histology, 11th edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 359 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1917) The Microscope; An Introduction to Microscopic Methods and to Histology, Twelfth edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 472 p.The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1920) The Microscope; An Introduction to Microscopic Methods and to Histology, Thirteenth edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 474 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE, S. H. (1920) Modern Dark-Field Microscopy and the History of its Development. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society XXXIX (2) 95-141. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1925) The Microscope; An Introduction to Microscopic Methods and to Histology, Darkfield (14th) edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 517 p. Second Printing 1927.
  • GAGE. S. H. (1932) The Microscope, Ultra-Violet (15th) edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 589 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1936) The Microscope, Sixteenth edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 615 p. The Microscope
  • GAGE. S. H. (1941) The Microscope, Seventeenth edition. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 617 p. Second Printing 1943.
  • GAGE, S. H. and GAGE, H. P. (1914) Optic Projection; Principles, Installation and Use of the Magic Lantern, Projection Microscope, Reflecting Lantern, Moving Picture Machine. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York, 731 p. Optic Projection

References

  1. Delly, John Gustav. "Simon Henry Gage". Modern Microscopy. Retrieved 2/15/13. 
  2. Kingsbury, B. F. "Professor Simon Henry Gage, An Appreciation". 
  3. Leonard, John (ed) (1908). Who's Who in New York City and State, Volume 4. New York City: Hamersly & Co. p. 522. 
  4. Oakes, Elizabeth H. (2007). Encyclopedia of World Scientists, Revised Edition, pages 258-259. New York, New York: Infobase Publishing. 
  5. Phelps, Susanna Stuart (1880). The Influence of the Study of Physical Phenomena upon Character. Rare and Manuscript Collections: Thesis, Cornell University. 
  6. BENSLEY, R. R.; Kinsbury, B. F. and BENSLEY, R. R., B. F. KINGSBURY and G. L. STREETER (1945). "Simon Henry Gage. 1851-1944.". Anatomical Record 92 (3): 306–309. Retrieved 3/8/2013. 
  7. "Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement". 
  8. Gage, Simon Henry. "Collected Reprints Volume 3.". Retrieved 2/15/03. 
  9. "The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections". Retrieved 2013-03-14. 
  10. Anon. (1892). Popular Science 41 (May): 134. 
  11. M., B. D. (1911). "The Microscope. Simon Henry Gage. Comstock Publishing Co, Ithaca, New York". Anatomical Record 5: 562. 
  12. Gage, Simon Henry (1925). The Microscope. Darkfield (14th) Edition. Ithaca, New York: Comstock Publishing Company. 
  13. Gage, Simon Henry (1932). The Microscope. Ultra-Violet (15th) Edition. Ithaca, New York: Comstock Publishing Company. 
  14. McClung, C. E. (1932). "The Microscope. Simon Henry Gage. Ultra-violet Edition (15th). Ithaca, N. Y. The Comstock Publishing Co. 1932". Anatomical Record 53 (1): 103–104. 
  15. Richtmyer, F. K. (1932). "The Microscope. By Simon Henry Gage, Emeritus Professor of Histology". Journal of the Optical Society of America 22: 499. 
  16. Laughlin, Gary J. (2013). "Editorial: Microscopical Verse". The Microscope 61: ii. Retrieved 5 August 2013. 
  17. CALS Notes 10/27/2013. "Focusing in on a Forgotten Poem". Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Retrieved 2013-10-28. 
  18. Wayne, Randy (2013). ""Microscope" A Lost Poem by Louis Ginsberg". The Microscope. 61(2): 85–87. Retrieved 28 October 2013. 

Obituaries

External links

  • Simon Henry Gage (1851-1944) Quintessential American Microscopist by John Gustav Delly
  • Simon Henry Gage. 1904-1905. Microscopy, Histology and Embryology in Cornell University. A Guide to Course 1. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New YYork. openlibrary.org
  • Simon Henry Gage and Benjamin Freeman Kingsbury. 1899-1900. Vertebrate Histology; A Guide for Course 2, Department of Microscopy, Histology and Embryology. Cornell University and the New York State Veterinary College. Vertebrate Histology
  • Burt G. Wilder and Simon Henry Gage. 1882. Anatomical Technology as Applied to the Domestic Cat, A. S. Barnes, New York. Anatomical Technology as Applied to the Domestic Cat
  • Burt G. Wilder and Simon Henry Gage. 1886. Anatomical Technology as Applied to the Domestic Cat, Second Edition, A. S. Barnes, New York. Anatomical Technology as Applied to the Domestic Cat
  • Barry B. Miller. 2001. Did Gage make these antique microscope slides? www.victorianmicroscopeslides.com www.microscopy-uk.org.uk
  • Three American Microscope Builders. Foreword by Simon Henry Gage, written October 5, 1944, just before his death. www.dickwhitney.net
  • Anonymous. 1917. Memorial to Susanna Phelps Gage. Science 45(1152): 82-83
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