Thomas Say: New World Naturalist

by Patricia Tyson Stroud

Explorer, natural scientist, and a founder of the Academy of Natural Scientists in Philadelphia, Say (1787-1834) devoted his life to establishing the authority of American scientists to name and describe their native flora and fauna. He wrote the first book published in America on insects, American Entomology , and a magnum opus on shells, American Conchology . Stroud draws on Say's correspondence and other biographical details to present an accurate, detailed picture of Say's personality and character. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Biography

362 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1992

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting something different from this book. I had hoped that it would focus on the scientific side of Say's work, and it didn't.
It was well written, and it was a fairly easy read. My issues were the following:
1. It was a biography about the "Father of American Entomology," yet it barely talked about his field work other than "he found two new specimens."Until the epilogue, we hardly knew what a few of these new species were.
2. The focus seemed to be on his publishing/involvement with societies. While that was an interesting glimpse into the workings of an early scientific society, I just wasn't interested in this (which is more my issue than the author's).
3. There was an awful lot of name dropping: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John James Audubon, etc. But very little mention of unknown people, like Say's living family, or his wife's family. It gave the feeling that the author was trying to establish how important Say was by how he knew other important people (or how other important people had heard of him).
4. There was an entire chapter devoted to the history of the town he moved to, including the history of the founder of that town, yet his entire trip to Mexico (which must have taken a chunk of time in those days) was covered in one page, in which we learned that he "collected new specimens."

At the end of this book I felt unsatisfied, but I'm willing to admit that it could be that I had expectations of a more scientific than historical work, which this book never claimed to be.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Say (1787 - 1934) was an American naturalist now known as the Father of both American Entomology and Conchology. In the period after our Revolutionary War when the young nation struggled to establish not only its own political and economic identity but also its cultural and scientific credentials, Say was one of the keys to the latter. He was a founding member of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia which published one of the first serious scientific journals in North America.

Like so many scientists of that time his interests were vast, including today's fields of ornithology and zoology. In his lifetime he scientifically identified thousands of insects and mollusks, in the process turning the World's inquiring minds to the New World. He was an adventurer in body as well as in mind, being a vital component of two Western Expeditions led by Major Stephen Long. He accompanied his benefactor, William McClure, on the Boatload of Knowledge , to McClure's utopian community in New Harmony, Indiana - then the Western frontier.

A fascinating and intriguing figure that stands with our other founding naturalists - Alexander Wilson, James Audubon, William Bartram, and Thomas Nuttall. The Author, Patrician Stroud, is herself a Say descendent, and she writes with warmth and interest of her now distant colleague.

I would recommend this Biography to anyone with an interest in early American history, history of science, and/or an interest in the Midwest, and especially, Indiana.

[Persephone Underwing · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an entomologist with a love of dabbling in the history of science, I very much enjoyed reading this biography of the first American entomologist of Western science. I appreciated learning about the early society workings and the little dramas therein. In particular, the author made Say very human in his ambition and quirks, which is important to retain in our understanding of those whose shoulders we stand on. Learning about New Harmony was fascinating. Having learned of the failed-utopia here, I serendipitously had the opportunity to visit after driving out to Illinois to see the rare double-broods of periodic cicadas in 2024. The little town is well-worth the visit and seeing how Thomas Say was honored in death reinforced how he was portrayed in this biography: A man in pursuit of understanding the natural world. The golden rain trees he planted are still there (for better or for worse, as our understanding of ecology grows).