Louis Agassiz

After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Stanford President David Starr Jordan wrote, "Somebody—Dr. Angell, perhaps—remarked that 'Agassiz was great in the abstract but not in the concrete.'"

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (May 28, 1807—December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-American zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist, the husband of educator Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, and one of the first world-class American scientists. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (756x945, 108 KB) subject: Louis Agassiz source: http://bpun. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (756x945, 108 KB) subject: Louis Agassiz source: http://bpun. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 472 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (670 × 850 pixel, file size: 211 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Statue of zoologist Louis Agassiz at Stanford after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 472 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (670 × 850 pixel, file size: 211 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Statue of zoologist Louis Agassiz at Stanford after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. ... PPPPPPPPPPP§ ... Stanford may refer: Stanford University Places: Stanford, Kentucky Stanford, California, home of Stanford University Stanford Shopping Center Stanford, New York, town in Dutchess County. ... David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan, Ph. ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1807 (MDCCCVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Zoology (Greek zoon = animal and logos = word) is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ... Glaciology is the study of glaciers, or more generally the study of ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. ... The Geologist by Carl Spitzweg A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system (see planetary geology). ... Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (nee Cary) (1822 - 1907) was a U.S. educator. ...

Early life and education

Further information: Agassiz family

Louis Agassiz was born in Môtier (now part of Haut-Vully) in the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland. Educated first at home, then spending four years of secondary school in Bienne, he completed his elementary studies in Lausanne. Having adopted medicine as his profession, he studied successively at the universities of Zürich, Heidelberg and Munich; while there he extended his knowledge of natural history, especially of botany. In 1829 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Erlangen, and in 1830 that of doctor of medicine at Munich. Moving to Paris he fell under the tutelage of Alexander von Humboldt and Georges Cuvier, who launched him on his careers of geology and zoology respectively. Until shortly before this time he had paid no special attention to the study of ichthyology, which soon afterwards became the great occupation of his life, if not the one for which he is most remembered in the modern day. On the other hand, Agassiz was also openly a racist and an early supporter of Apartheid (s. Hans Faessler, "Reisen in Schwarz-Weiss", Rotpunkt Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-85869-0). To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Haut-Vully is a municipality in the district of See, in the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland. ... The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. ... Place du Ring in Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne is a town in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland. ... Lausanne (pronounced ) is a city in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva (French: Lac Léman), and facing Évian-les-Bains (France) and with the Jura mountains to its north. ... The University of Zurich (in German: Universität Zürich) is the largest university of Switzerland, in the city of Zurich. ... The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (German Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; also known as simply University of Heidelberg) was established in the town of Heidelberg, then the seat of the Counts Palatine, Prince-Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1386. ... Main building of the Ludwig Maximilians University Main staircase of the university, Munich The Atrium at the main building The Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (German: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), also known as LMU or simply University of Munich, is a university in the heart of Munich. ... Table of natural history, 1728 Cyclopaedia Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now often viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines of integrative organismal biology. ... Pinguicula grandiflora Example of a Cross Section of a Stem [1] Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1829 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph. ... The castle in the center of Erlangen, known to many simply as the Schloss, is home to a large part of the universitys administration Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen Nuremberg (FAU), founded in 1742, is Bavarias second largest state university with eleven faculties and 265 chairs. ... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution 1830 (MDCCCXXX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Doctor of Medicine (M.D. or MD, from the Latin Medicinae Doctor meaning Teacher of Medicine,) is an academic degree for medical doctors. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... An 1859 portrait of Alexander von Humboldt by the artist Julius Schrader, showing Mount Chimborazo in the background. ... Georges Cuvier Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (August 23, 1769–May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. ... Ichthyology (from Greek: ἰχθυ, ikhthu, fish; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. ... 1. ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ...

Early work

In 1819-1820, Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius were engaged in an expedition to Brazil, and on their return to Europe, amongst other collections of natural objects they brought home an important set of the fresh water fish of Brazil, and especially of the Amazon River. Spix, who died in 1826, did not live long enough to work out the history of these fish, and Agassiz (though fresh out of school) was selected by Martius for this purpose. He at once threw himself into the work with an enthusiasm which characterized him to the end of his busy life. The task of describing the Brazilian fish was completed and published in 1829. This was followed by research into the history of the fish found in Lake Neuchâtel. Enlarging his plans, in 1830 he issued a prospectus of a History of the Freshwater Fish of Central Europe. It was only in 1839, however, that the first part of this publication appeared, and it was completed in 1842. In 1832 he was appointed professor of natural history in the University of Neuchâtel. The fossil fish there soon attracted his attention. The fossil-rich stones furnished by the slates of Glarus and the limestones of Monte Bolca were known at the time, but very little had been accomplished in the way of scientific study of them. Agassiz, as early as 1829, planned the publication of the work which, more than any other, laid the foundation of his world-wide fame. Five volumes of his Recherches sur les poissons fossiles ("Research on Fossil Fish") appeared at intervals from 1833 to 1843. They were magnificently illustrated, chiefly by Joseph Dinkel. In gathering materials for this work Agassiz visited the principal museums in Europe, and meeting Cuvier in Paris, he received much encouragement and assistance from him. They had known him for seven years at the time. Johann Baptist von Spix (February 9, 1781 - March 14, 1826) was a German naturalist. ... Carl F.P. von Martius Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (April 17, 1794–December 13, 1868) was a German botanist and explorer. ... For the village on the Isle of Wight, see Freshwater, Isle of Wight. ... For other uses, see Fish (disambiguation). ... This article is about the river. ... The oldest surviving photograph, Nicéphore Niépce, circa 1826 1826 (MDCCCXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1829 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Lake Neuchâtel (French: Lac de Neuchâtel; German: Neuenburgersee) is a lake in Western Switzerland (French-speaking Switzerland). ... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution 1830 (MDCCCXXX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1839 (MDCCCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Year 1832 (MDCCCXXXII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The University of Neuchâtel is a university in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. ... For other uses, see Fossil (disambiguation). ... Slate Slate Macro Slate roof Slate is a fine-grained, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low grade regional metamorphism. ... Glarus is the capital of the Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. ... For other uses, see Limestone (disambiguation). ... Monte Bolca is a lagerstätt near Verona, Italy that was one of the first fossil sites with high quality preservation known to Europeans, and is still an important source of fossils from the Eocene. ... Year 1833 (MDCCCXXXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1843 (MDCCCXLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Agassiz found that his palaeontological labours made necessary a new basis of ichthyological classification. The fossils rarely exhibited any traces of the soft tissues of fish. They consisted chiefly of the teeth, scales and fins, even the bones being perfectly preserved in comparatively few instances. He therefore adopted a classification which divided fish into four groups: Ganoids, Placoids, Cycloids and Ctenoids, based on the nature of the scales and other dermal appendages. While Agassiz did much to place the subject on a scientific basis, this classification has been superseded by later work.

As Agassiz's descriptive work proceeded, it became obvious that it would over-tax his resources unless financial assistance could be found. The British Association came to his aid, and the Earl of Ellesmere — then Lord Francis Egerton — gave him yet more efficient help. The 1,290 original drawings made for the work were purchased by the Earl, and presented by him to the Geological Society of London. In 1836 the Wollaston Medal was awarded to Agassiz by the council of that society for his work on fossil ichthyology; and in 1838 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society. Meanwhile invertebrate animals engaged his attention. In 1837 he issued the "Prodrome" of a monograph on the recent and fossil Echinodermata, the first part of which appeared in 1838; in 1839-1840 he published two quarto volumes on the fossil Echinoderms of Switzerland; and in 1840-1845 he issued his Etudes critiques sur les mollusques fossiles ("Critical Studies on Fossil Mollusks"). The British Association or the British Association for the Advancement of Science or the BA is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating intercourse between scientific workers. ... The title Duke of Sutherland was created for George Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Marquess of Stafford, in 1833. ... Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere (January 1, 1800 - February 18, 1857), born in London, was the second son of the 1st duke of Sutherland. ... The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in England with the aim of investigating the mineral structure of the Earth. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with over 9000 Fellows entitled to the postnominal FGS - over 2000 of... Year 1836 (MDCCCXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London. ... | Jöns Jakob Berzelius, discoverer of protein 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... For other uses, see Royal Society (disambiguation). ... Invertebrate is an English word that describes any animal without a spinal column. ... Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom (1837 - 1901) 1837 (MDCCCXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Classes Asteroidea Concentricycloidea Crinoidea Echinoidea Holothuroidea Ophiuroidea Echinoderms (Echinodermata) is a phylum of marine animals found in the ocean at all depths. ... | Jöns Jakob Berzelius, discoverer of protein 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Classes Caudofoveata Aplacophora Polyplacophora Monoplacophora Bivalvia Scaphopoda Gastropoda Cephalopoda † Rostroconchia The mollusks or molluscs are the large and diverse phylum Mollusca, which includes a variety of familiar creatures well-known for their decorative shells or as seafood. ...

Before his first visit to England in 1834, the labours of Hugh Miller and other geologists brought to light the remarkable fish of the Old Red Sandstone of the northeast of Scotland. The strange forms of the Pterichthys, the Coccosteus and other genera were then made known to geologists for the first time. They were of intense interest to Agassiz, and formed the subject of a special monograph by him published in 1844-1845: Monographie des poissons fossiles du Vieux Gres Rouge, ou Systeme Devonien (Old Red Sandstone) des Iles Britanniques et de Russie ("Monograph on Fossil Fish of the Old Red Sandstone, or Devonian System of the British Isles and of Russia"). For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Year 1834 (MDCCCXXXIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Hugh Miller (1802 - 1856) was a Scottish geologist and writer. ... The Old Red Sandstone is a rock formation of considerable importance to early paleontology. ... This article is about the country. ... Pterichthyodes is a genus of placoderm fishes from the Devonian period, now all extinct. ... Coccosteus is an extinct genus of armored fish belonging to the class Placodermi. ... For other uses, see Genus (disambiguation). ... Jan. ... 1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

In the early stages of his career in Neuchatel, Agassiz also made a name for himself as a man who could run a scientific department well. Under his care, the University of Neuchâtel soon became a leading institution for scientific inquiry.

Proposal of an ice age

In 1837 Agassiz was the first to scientifically propose that the Earth had been subject to a past ice age. e. g.: North American review. / Volume 145, Issue 368, July 1887. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (906x1344, 425 KB) Louis Agassiz. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (906x1344, 425 KB) Louis Agassiz. ... Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ...

Prior to this de Saussure, Venetz, Jean de Charpentier and others had made the glaciers of the Alps the subjects of special study, and Charpentier had even arrived at the conclusion that the erratic blocks of alpine rocks scattered over the slopes and summits of the Jura Mountains had been moved there by glaciers. The question having attracted the attention of Agassiz, he not only made successive journeys to the alpine regions in company with Charpentier, but he had a hut constructed upon one of the Aar glaciers, which for a time he made his home, in order to investigate the structure and movements of the ice. These labours resulted, in 1840, in the publication of his work in two volumes entitled Etudes sur les glaciers ("Study on Glaciers"). In it he discussed the movements of the glaciers, their moraines, their influence in grooving and rounding the rocks over which they travelled, and in producing the striations and roches moutonnees seen in Alpine-style landscapes. He not only accepted Charpentier's idea that some of the alpine glaciers had extended across the wide plains and valleys drained by the Aar and the Rhône, but he went still farther. He concluded that, in the relatively recent past, Switzerland had been another Greenland; that instead of a few glaciers stretching across the areas referred to, one vast sheet of ice, originating in the higher Alps, had extended over the entire valley of northwestern Switzerland until it reached the southern slopes of the Jura, which, though they checked and deflected its further extension, did not prevent the ice from reaching in many places the summit of the range. The publication of this work gave a fresh impetus to the study of glacial phenomena in all parts of the world. Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (February 17, 1740 - January 22, 1799) was a Swiss physicist and Alpine traveller. ... Ignaz Venetz (1788–1859) was a Swiss engineer, naturalist, and glaciologist. ... Jean de Charpentier (December 8, 1786 - December 12, 1855) was a German-Swiss geologist who studied Swiss glaciers. ... This article is about the geological formation. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Looking towards Lelex from near to Crêt de la Neige The Jura folds are located north of the main Alpine orogenic front and are being continually deformed, accommodating the northwards compression from Alpine folding. ... Look up Aar, AAR in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about geological phenomena. ... Length 800 km Elevation of the source 1753 m Average discharge 1800 m³/ s Area watershed 100,200 km² Origin Rhône glacier Mouth Mediterranean Sea Basin countries Switzerland, France The River Rhône ( Latin Rhodanus, French Rhône, Occitan Rose, German Rotten) is one of the major rivers (ca. ...

Thus familiarized with the phenomena associated with the movements of recent glaciers, Agassiz was prepared for a discovery which he made in 1840, in conjunction with William Buckland. The two visited the mountains of Scotland together, and found in different locations clear evidence of ancient glacial action. The discovery was announced to the Geological Society of London in successive communications. The mountainous districts of England, Wales, and Ireland were also considered to constitute centres for the dispersion of glacial debris; and Agassiz remarked "that great sheets of ice, resembling those now existing in Greenland, once covered all the countries in which unstratified gravel (boulder drift) is found; that this gravel was in general produced by the trituration of the sheets of ice upon the subjacent surface, etc." William Buckland (12 March 1784 - 24 August 1856) was a prominent English geologist and palaeontologist who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, a proponent of Old Earth creationism and Flood geology who later became convinced by the glaciation theory of Louis Agassiz. ... This article is about the country. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article is about the country. ...

Relocation to the United States

In 1842-1846 he issued his Nomenclator Zoologicus, a classified list, with references, of all names employed in zoology for genera and groups — a work of great labour and research. With the aid of a grant of money from the King of Prussia, Agassiz crossed the Atlantic in the autumn of 1846 with the twin purposes of investigating the natural history and geology of North America and delivering a course of lectures on zoology, by invitation from J. A. Lowell, at the Lowell Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. The financial and scientific advantages presented to him in the United States induced him to settle there, where he remained to the end of his life. He was appointed professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University in 1847 where he founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1859 and served as the museum's first director until his death in 1873. During his tenure at Harvard, was, among many other things, an early studier of the effect of the last Ice Age on North America. 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1846 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... For other uses, see Prussia (disambiguation). ... “Atlantic” redirects here. ... North America North America is a continent[1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... John Amory Lowell (1798–1881) was an American philanthropist and businessman from Boston. ... Lowell Institute, an educational foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., providing for free public lectures, and endowed by the bequest of $237,000 left by John Lowell, Jr. ... “Boston” redirects here. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Museum of Comparative Zoology, part of the Harvard University Museum of Natural History complex, was founded by Louis Agassiz in 1859. ...

Agassiz served as a non-resident lecturer at Cornell while also being on faculty at Harvard.^[1] In 1852 he accepted a medical professorship of comparative anatomy at Charlestown, Massachusetts, but he resigned in two years. From this time his scientific studies dropped off, but he was a profound influence on the American branches of his two fields, teaching decades worth of future prominent scientists, including David Starr Jordan, Joel Asaph Allen, Joseph Le Conte, Ernest Ingersoll, Nathaniel Shaler, Alpheus Packard, and his son Alexander Agassiz, among others. He had a profound impact on the paleontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott. In return his name appears attached to several species, as well as here and there throughout the American landscape, notably Lake Agassiz, the Pleistocene precursor to Lake Winnipeg and the Red River. “Cornell” redirects here. ... 1852 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. ... Birdseye view of Boston, Charlestown, and Bunker Hill between 1890 and 1910. ... David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan, Ph. ... Joel Asaph Allen (July 19, 1838 - August 29, 1921) was an American zoologist and ornithologist. ... Joseph LeConte (February 26, 1823 - June 6, 1901) was an American geologist. ... Ernest Ingersoll (1852- ) was an [[United States|American naturalist, born at Monroe, Mich. ... Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (1841-1906) was an American paleontologist and geologist who wrote extensively on the theological and scientific implications of the theory of evolution. ... Alpheus Spring Packard (February 19, 1839 - February 14, 1905) was an American entomologist and palaeontologist. ... Alexander Agassiz Alexander Emanuel Agassiz (December 17, 1835 – March 27, 1910), son of Louis Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer. ... Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850 - February 9, 1927) was an eminent American invertebrate paleontologist. ... A map of the extent of Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz was an immense lake—bigger than all of the present-day Great Lakes combined—in the center of North America, which was fed by glacial runoff at the end of the last ice age. ... The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) on the geologic timescale is the period from 1,808,000 to 11,550 years BP. The Pleistocene epoch had been intended to cover the worlds recent period of repeated glaciations. ... Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba, on Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg (52°30′N 97°47′W) is a very large (24,400 km²) lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, about 55 km north of the city of Winnipeg. ... The Red River drainage basin, with the Red River highlighted The Red River in Greater Grand Forks, as viewed from the Grand Forks side of the river The Red River in Fargo-Moorhead, as viewed from the Fargo side of the river For other things named Red River, see the...

During this time he grew in fame even in the public consciousness, becoming one of the best-known scientists in the world. By 1857 he was so well-loved that Longfellow wrote "The fiftieth birthday of Agassiz" in his honour. His own writing continued with four (of a planned ten) volumes of Natural History of the United States which were published from 1857 to 1862. During this time he also published a catalog of papers in his field, Bibliographia Zoologiae et Geologiae, in four volumes between 1848 and 1854. 1857 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Baron Longfellow , also named Andy Kim was an artist from the 60s. ... This article is about 1862 . ... Year 1848 (MDCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... 1854 (MDCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Stricken by ill health in the 1860s, he resolved to return to the field partly for relaxation, and partly to take up his studies of Brazilian fishes once again. In April 1865 he led a party to Brazil[1]. Returning home in August 1866, an account of this expedition, entitled A Journey in Brazil, was published in 1868. In 1871 he made a second excursion, visiting the southern shores of North America, both on its Atlantic and its Pacific seaboards. // The First Transcontinental Railroad in the USA was built in the six year period between 1863 and 1869. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Year 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Legacies

In 1863, Agassiz's daughter Ida married Henry Lee Higginson, later to be founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and benefactor to Harvard University and other schools. Henry Lee Higginson (November 18, 1834 - November 14, 1919) was a remarkable Boston banker, amateur musician, Civil War soldier, and energetic philanthropist best known as the founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. ... The Boston Symphony Orchestra is one of the worlds premiere orchestras. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ...

In the last years of his life, Agassiz worked to establish a permanent school where zoological science could be pursued amid the living subjects of its study. In 1873, a private philanthropist (John Anderson) gave Agassiz the island of Penikese, in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts (south of New Bedford), and presented him with $50,000 to permanently endow it as a practical school of natural science, especially devoted to the study of marine zoology. The John Anderson school collapsed soon after Agassiz's death, but is considered a precursor of the Marine Biological Laboratory, which is nearby. John Anderson is a common name shared by a number of individuals: John HD Anderson (1726-1796), a Scottish scientist. ... Penikese Island lies off the coast of Massachusetts near Buzzards Bay. ... Map of Buzzards Bay. ... Nickname: Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country United States State Massachusetts County Bristol County Settled 1640 Incorporated 1787 Government  - Type Mayor-council  - Mayor Scott W. Lang (Dem)  - City Council President/Ward 6: Leo R. Pimental. ... The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a famous scientific institution located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. ...

Agassiz is remembered today for his work on ice ages, and for being one of the last prominent zoologists to resist Charles Darwin's theories on evolution (an attitude he would hold for the rest of his life). He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1873 and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. His monument is a boulder selected from the moraine of the glacier of the Aar near the site of the old Hotel des Neuchatelois, not far from the spot where his hut once stood; and the pine-trees that shelter his grave were sent from his old home in Switzerland. For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin. ... Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country United States State Massachusetts County Middlesex County Settled 1630 Incorporated 1636 Government  - Type Mayor-council city  - Mayor Kenneth Reeves (D) Area  - City  7. ... Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery Hunnewell family obelisk Civil War memorial Founded in 1831 as Americas first garden cemetery, Mount Auburn Cemetery is an Elysium where, traditionally, chaste classical monuments were set in rolling landscaped terrain. ...

Grave: front view Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1512 × 2016 pixel, file size: 697 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Grave of Louis Agassiz, front view File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ...

Grave: side view Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1512 × 2016 pixel, file size: 850 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Grave of Louis Agassiz, side view File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ...

Grave: side view Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2016 × 1512 pixel, file size: 687 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Grave of Louis Agassiz, side view File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ...

The Cambridge elementary school north of Harvard University was named in his honor and the surrounding neighborhood became known as "Agassiz" as a result. The school's name was changed to the Maria L. Baldwin school on May 21, 2002, in honor of the African-American principal of the school who served from 1889 until 1922. The neighborhood, however, continues to be known as Agassiz. [2]

An ancient glacial lake that formed in the Great Lakes region of North America, Lake Agassiz, is named after him, as are Mount Agassiz in Palisades (California Sierra), Mount Agassiz, Utah, in the Uinta Mountains, and Agassiz Peak in Arizona. A crater on Mars and a promontorium on the Moon are also named in his honour. A map of the extent of Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz was an immense lake—bigger than all of the present-day Great Lakes combined—in the center of North America, which was fed by glacial runoff at the end of the last ice age. ... This article is about the mountain in California, For other geographic features with this name, see Agassiz Mount Agassiz, at , is one of the twenty highest peaks of California. ... North Palisade from Windy Point (by Ansel Adams) The Palisades (or the Palisade Group) are a group of peaks in the central part of the Sierra Nevada range in the US state of California. ... This article is about the mountain in Utah, For other geographic features with this name, see Agassiz. ... Agassiz Peak is the second highest mountain in Arizona at 12,356 feet (3,766 metres). ...

Several animal species, such as Apistogramma agassizi (Agassiz's dwarf cichlid), Isocapnia agassizi (Agassiz snowfly), and Gopherus agassizii (desert tortoise). Binomial name Gopherus agassizii Cooper, 1863 The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is a species of tortoise native to the Mojave desert and Sonoran desert of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. ...

In 2005 the EGU Division on Cryospheric Sciences established the Louis Agassiz Medal, awarded to individuals in recognition of their outstanding scientific contribution to the study of the cryosphere on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system. The European Geosciences Union (or EGU) is an interdisciplinary learned non-profit association open to individuals who are professionally engaged in or associated with geosciences, planetary and space sciences, and related studies. ...

He took part in a monthly gathering called the Saturday Club at the Omni Parker House, a meeting of Boston writers and intellectuals. He was therefore mentioned in a stanza of the Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. poem, "At the Saturday Club," where the author dreams he sees some of his friends who are no longer: Omni Parker House hotel in August 2006 The Omni Parker House Hotel is a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, currently owned by Omni Hotels and named the Omni Parker House. ... Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. ...

"There, at the table's further end I see
In his old place our Poet's vis-à-vis,
The great PROFESSOR, strong, broad-shouldered, square,
In life's rich noontide, joyous, debonair.
His social hour no leaden care alloys,
His laugh rings loud and mirthful as a boy's,--
That lusty laugh the Puritan forgot,--
What ear has heard it and remembers not?
How often, halting at some wide crevasse
Amid the windings of his Alpine pass,
High up the cliffs, the climbing mountaineer,
Listening the far-off avalanche to hear,
Silent, and leaning on his steel-shod staff,
Has heard that cheery voice, that ringing laugh,
From the rude cabin whose nomadic walls
Creep with the moving glacier as it crawls!

How does vast Nature lead her living train
In ordered sequence through that spacious brain,
As in the primal hour when Adam named
The new-born tribes that young creation claimed!--
How will her realm be darkened, losing thee,
Her darling, whom we call our AGASSIZ!"

Racial classification scheme and racism

Further information: Scientific racism

In his 1851 Essay on Classification, Agassiz defined a number of human races based on climatic zones, by which he believed all animals, plants, and races could be classified. Scientific racism might refer to either obsolete scientific theories of the 19th century or to historical and contemporary racist propaganda disguised as scientific research. ... 1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ...

These included Western American Temperate (the indigenous peoples west of the Rockies); Eastern American Temperate (east of the Rockies); Tropical Asiatic (south of the Himalayas); Temperate Asiatic (east of the Urals and north of the Himalayas); South American Temperate (South America); New Holland (Australia); Arctic (Alaska and Arctic Canada); Cape of Good Hope (South Africa); and American Tropical (Central America and the West Indies).

Agassiz denied that species originated in single pairs, whether at a single location or at many. He argued instead multiple individuals in each species were created at the same time and then distributed throughout the continents where God meant for them to dwell. His lectures on poly-genetics were popular among the slaveholders in the South, for many this opinion legitimized the belief in a lower standard of the Negro. The racism of Louis Agassiz is undeniable, but it was fairly common in his times (writers, scientists, politicians and others). For more details, see "Louis Agassiz" in Wikipedia in German and in French.

On September 9, 2007 the Swiss Federal Council (Government) acknowledged the "racist thinking" of Agassiz but declined to rename the Agassizhorn summit.^[2]

Works

• Recherches sur les poissons fossiles (1833-1843)
• History of the Freshwater Fishes of Central Europe (1839-1842)
• Etudes sur les glaciers (1840)
• Etudes critiques sur les mollusques fossiles (1840-1845)
• Nomenclator Zoologicus (1842-1846)
• Monographie des poissons fossiles du Vieux Gres Rouge, ou Systeme Devonien (Old Red Sandstone) des Iles Britanniques et de Russie (1844-1845)
• Bibliographia Zoologiae et Geologiae (1848)
• (with AA Gould) Principles of Zoology for the use of Schools and Colleges (Boston, 1848)
• Lake Superior: Its Physical Character, Vegetation and Animals, compared with those of other and similar regions (Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1850)
• Natural History of the United States (Boston: Little, Brown, 1847-1862)
• Geological Sketches ((Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866)
• A Journey in Brazil (1868)
• De l' espèce et de la classification en zoologie [Essay on classification] (Trans. Felix Vogeli. Paris: Bailière, 1869)
• Geological Sketches (Second Series) (Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1876)
• "Essay on Classification", by Louis Agassiz (1962, Cambridge)

Year 1833 (MDCCCXXXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1843 (MDCCCXLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... 1839 (MDCCCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1846 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Jan. ... 1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Year 1848 (MDCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Augustus Addison Gould (April 23, 1805 _ September 15, American conchologist, was born at New Ipswich, New Hampshire. ... Year 1848 (MDCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... For the game, see: 1850 (board game) 1850 (MDCCCL) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday [1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about 1862 . ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Year 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... 1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Year 1876 Pick up Sticks(MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Sources

• Numbers, Ronald L., "The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design", 2nd ed., 2006.

• Early Classics in Biography, Distribution, and Diversity Studies: to 1950.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Louis Agassiz

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Louis Agassiz

• Works by Louis Agassiz at Project Gutenberg
• 19th century biography of Agassiz
• Eric W. Weisstein, Agassiz, Jean (1807-1873) at ScienceWorld.
• Letter written by Agassiz
• "Geographical Distribution of Animals", by Louis Agassiz (1850)

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ... Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. ... ScienceWorld, also known as Eric Weissteins World of Science, is a web site that opened to the general public in January 2002. ...