Word: naturalist
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...lineal descendant of Henry VII. Despite so much blue blood, the bar sinister seared James Smithson all his life. A cultured, studious bachelor fond of science and travel, he might logically have left his money to Britain's venerable Royal Society. However, according to the great U. S. naturalist, Louis Agassiz, his feelings were hurt when the Royal Society failed to publish some papers which he submitted. Therefore, his will directed that if his nephew should die childless, his fortune (much of which came to him from a halfbrother) should go "to found at Washington, under the name...
...Chicago News went able, owlish Howard Denby to be the new syndicate's vice president and editor. Quickly Mr. Denby allied the Esquire syndicate with the News by arranging for it to market two News features, Howard Vincent O'Brien's column All Things Considered, and Naturalist Donald Culross Peattie's A Breath of Outdoors. Counting the old fashion article, the Esquire syndicate offers prospective customers eleven different features, to be purchased singly or in block...
...gave the contract to the professional model-making firm of Guernsey & Pitman. His instructions were that all the models should be of the same scale (half an inch to the foot), that the trees should not be random twigs and bits of painted sponge, but accurate reproductions which any naturalist could recognize...
Though the U. S. has been a fertile field of observation, Author Peattie lists few U. S. naturalists. John Bartram, Colonial farmer turned collector, roamed the whole Atlantic seaboard for his European customers. Alexander Wilson and Jean-Jacques Audubon were first-rate ornithologists. Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, "most widely celebrated unknown man in science," was a brilliant Jack-of-all-sciences. Germany's Goethe was an amateur naturalist whose scientific theories were often ridiculous but almost always fruitful. Author Peattie's biggest hero is an Englishman. Charles Darwin, whose five seasick years aboard H. M. S. Beagle gave...
Author Peattie has not been content merely to sketch the lives and achievements of his heroes; a consciously literary writer and a conscious naturalist, he plugs in many a purple passage, many a first-hand observation of Nature. Readers may be either awed, captivated or annoyed by his literary airs, but many a city-dweller who cannot tell the birds from the wild flowers will find his naturalistic enthusiasm contagious...