{{Short description|American scientist (1853–1907)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Angelo Heilprin | image = AngeloHeilprin.png | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1853|3|31}} | birth_place = Sátoraljaújhely, Zemplén County, Kingdom of Hungary | death_date = {{death date and age|1907|7|17|1853|3|31}} | death_place = | fields = Geology, paleontology, natural history | workplaces = Academy of Natural Sciences, Wagner Free Institute of Science, Yale University | known_for = Participation in the Peary expedition to Greenland, research on the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée | awards = American Philosophical Society membership | relatives = Louis Heilprin (brother), Michael Heilprin (father), Phineas Mendel Heilprin (grandfather) }} '''Angelo Heilprin''' (March 31, 1853 – July 17, 1907) was an American geologist, paleontologist, naturalist, and explorer.
He is mostly known for the part he took into the Peary expedition to Greenland of 1891–1892 and for his observations and photographs of the 1902 eruption of Montagne Pelée in Martinique.
He also was a mountaineer and a painter.
== Biography ==
Angelo Heilprin was born at Sátoraljaújhely, in the Zemplén County of the Kingdom of Hungary. His family was Jewish.<ref>Lee Levinger, ''A History of the Jews in the United States'', Wildside Press LLC (2007), p. 302</ref> He arrived in the United States from the Austrian Empire with his father Michael and his brother Louis in 1856.<ref>Angelo was three and Louis five. The unsuccessful Hungarian Revolution and Independence War of 1848 played a role in the move. Phineas Mendel, Angelo's grandfather, a Poland-born Talmudist, had had sympathy for the revolutionaries and his father, also born in Poland, had been a government employee under Lajos Kossuth. Michael Heilprin was to be a contributor to the ''American Cyclopædia'' and Phineas Mendel joined the family in 1859. Appletons. <br /> Pollak is a source for Michael's and Louis' biographies.</ref>
He went back to Europe in 1876 for two years to complete his education. He studied at the Royal School of Mines, London,<ref>"[T]he best man in my class" wrote Thomas Henry Huxley to Henry Newell Martin of Johns Hopkins University. Heilprin might have accepted a fellowship there but the letter informing him of the possibility never reached him. Pollak, [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?view=image;size=100;id=mdp.39015030660552;page=root;seq=269;num=239 p. 239]</ref> at the Imperial Geological Institution of Vienna, and at Florence (where he had his only formal training in painting) and Geneva; he also went to Hungary, where he mountaineered in the Carpathians, and to Poland where he visited family for six months.<ref>Pollak, [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?u=1;24;seq=268;view=1up;size=100;id=mdp.39015030660552;page=root;orient=0;24;15;num=238 page 238]</ref>
He then became professor of invertebrate paleontology and of geology at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (1880–1900), curator of the museum of that institution (1883–1892), professor of geology at the Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia (1885–1890); and he was the first president of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia, serving for seven years.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Addresses Delivered at the Meeting Held in Honor of the Memory of Professor Angelo Heilprin| journal=Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia|volume=VI|date=Jan 1908}}</ref> In 1883, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1883&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-19|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
Also a painter, Heilprin exhibited ''Autumn's First Whisper'' at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1880, and ''Forest Exiles'' at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1883.
In 1902 he founded the American Alpine Club.<ref name=AlpineClub>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanalpineclub.org/p/heilprin-citation |title=Angelo Heilprin Citation - American Alpine Club |access-date=2012-09-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124130238/http://americanalpineclub.org/p/heilprin-citation |archive-date=2013-01-24 }}</ref>
In 1904, he was appointed as a lecturer<ref>{{cite book |title=Historical Register of Yale University 1701-1937 |date=1939 |publisher=Yale University |location=New Haven, Connecticut |page=304}}</ref> at Yale. <!--thumb|Genealogical Tree of the Later Branch of the Heilprin Family-->
=== Research === [[File:Pelee 1902 3.jpg|thumb|One of Heilprin's most famous photographs: the ruined city of Saint-Pierre, with the Montagne Pelée volcano lost in cloud in the background]]
In Heilprin's life research travels alternate with periods of teaching and writing. He visited Florida, the Bermudas, Mexico, Greenland and Martinique while also devoting work to his more immediate surroundings. His mountaineering skills were put to use many times in his scientific work.
In 1886, Heilprin undertook an expedition to the then little-known west coast of Florida.<ref>He coined the now-obsolete term of "Floridian" designating a period of the middle Pliocene. "Floridian", in Moureau, Magdeleine and Brace, Gerald, {{google books|bgFAR2Qp51sC|Comprehensive dictionary of earth sciences|page=PA185}}. Ophrys, 2000 {{ISBN|9782710807490}}</ref> <br /> In 1887 he went to the Bermudas with members of his classes to study coral reefs, confirming Charles Darwin's 1842 views expressed in ''The structure and distribution of coral reefs''.<ref>Pollak, [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?u=1;24;seq=289;view=1up;size=100;id=mdp.39015030660552;page=root;orient=0;24;15;num=259 p. 259]</ref> <br/ > In 1888, Heilprin was in Mexico, where he ascended volcanos: Ixtaccihuatl, Nevado de Toluca, Pico de Orizaba and Popocatepetl, establishing their altitudes with barometric measures. He also shed light on questions about the geology of the Yucatan and the coral reefs of the western Gulf of Mexico.<ref>The results of that research trip to Mexico (and that of 1906) were never published. They can however be found in the proceedings of the Academy and in Heilprin's papers. Excerpts can be found in Pollak, pp. [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?u=1&num=260&seq=294&view=image&size=100&id=mdp.39015030660552 260–263].</ref>
En 1891 Heilprin embarked with Robert Peary on an expedition to Greenland organized by the Academy of Natural Sciences. Peary was the leader of the north-bound expedition, which was to prove that Greenland is an island. Heilprin headed the "Western Expedition" comprising half a dozen scientists.<ref>There also was a reporter of the ''New York Herald''.</ref> The scientists collected data then returned to the U.S., while Peary remained in Greenland.<ref>Pollak, [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?view=image;size=100;id=mdp.39015030660552;page=root;seq=295;num=265 {{nobr|p. 265}}]</ref> But the next year Heilprin was back to Greenland, leading the "Peary relief expedition".<ref>[http://www.ansp.org/research/library/archives/0100-0199/coll0145/#indepth Description of the Heilprin documents of the expedition]</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Peary Relief Expedition […]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1892/06/28/archives/peary-relief-expedition-the-miranda-sails-with-the-party-bound-for.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 28, 1892 |access-date=2012-09-20}}</ref> <!--Please do not mention the Edward Longstreth Medal which was for "Improved Ventilating Car Window" (a homonym)-->
In 1902, when Montagne Pelée in Martinique erupted,<ref>08-05-1902</ref> reducing the city of Saint-Pierre to ashes, Heilprin was one of the first scientists to arrive to the site. His works, photographs and eyewitness account of the phenomena and their consequences are unique. He was the first geologist to ascend a side of the crater.<ref>31-05-1902 and 01-06-1902. {{cite book| first1=Alfred| last1=Lacroix| author-link1=Alfred Lacroix| language=fr | title=La Montagne Pelée et ses éruptions| publisher=Cercle européen d'édition| location=Monaco| year=1975| volume=2| page=112| oclc=61549644}}</ref> He revisited it in 1903 and in February 1906 descended into the crater itself.
=== Remembrance === * In 1976 the American Alpine Club established a yearly "Angelo Heilprin Citation".<ref name=AlpineClub/> * The Heilprin Glacier, having its terminus at the head of the Inglefield Fjord in NW Greenland, was named after him by Robert Peary.
==== Eponymy ==== * ''Boana heilprini'' * ''Cyanocorax heilprini'' (the azure-naped jay), a species in the family of Corvidae, was named after him. * ''Hypsiboas heilprini'' also bears his name.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Noble |first1=G. K. |year=1923 |title=Six new batrachians from the Dominican Republic |journal=American Museum Novitates |issue=61 |pages=1–6 |hdl=2246/4342 }}</ref>
== Selected works and documents ==
=== Selected works === * {{cite book|title= Contributions to the Tertiary geology and paleontology of the United States|publisher=The Author|location= Philadelphia |year=1884}} {{Google books|390PAAAAIAAJd|Online}} * {{cite book|title=Town geology: the lesson of the Philadelphia rocks: studies of nature along the highways and among the byways of a metropolitan town|publisher=The Author|location=Philadelphia|year=1885|hdl=2027/nyp.33433062726991}} * {{cite book|title= The geographical and geological distribution of animals |publisher=D. Appleton| location=New York|year=1887 |url=https://www.archive.org/details/geographicalgeol00hei}} * {{cite book|title= Explorations on the west coast of Florida and in the Okeechobee wilderness: with special reference to the geology and zoology of the Floridian Peninsula: a narrative of researches undertaken under the auspices of the Wagner Free Institute of Science of Philadelphia|publisher=The Institute|location=Philadelphia |year=1887}} {{Google books|28oJAQAAIAAJ|Online}} * {{cite book|title=The geological evidences of evolution| publisher=The Author| location=Philadelphia|year=1888}} {{Google books|EKoYAAAAIAAJ|Online}} * {{cite book|title=The animal life of our seashore: with special reference to the New Jersey coast and the southern shore of Long Island|publisher=J. B. Lippincott Co|location=Philadelphia|year=1888}} {{Google books|LDcIAQAAIAAJ|Online}} * {{cite book|title=The Bermuda Islands: a contribution to the physical history and zoology of the Somers archipelago: with an examination of the structure of coral reefs |publisher=The Author|location=Philadelphia|year=1889}} {{Google books|89wPAAAAIAAJ|Online}} * {{cite book|publisher=Iconographic Publishing Co| location=Philadelphia| year=1890|hdl=2027/umn.31951002033205a| title=The iconographic encyclopaedia of the arts and scien /| series=Bilder-Atlas : Iconographische Encyclopaedie.German. --}} Volume VII of ''The iconographic encyclopaedia'' * {{cite book|title=The Arctic problem and narrative of the Peary relief expedition of the Academy of natural sciences of Philadelphia|publisher=Contemporary Publishing Co|location=Philadelphia|year=1893|hdl=2027/yale.39002065517949}} * {{cite book|title=The earth and its story: a first book of geology|publisher= Silver, Burdett and Co|location=New York, Boston|year=1896|hdl=2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t56d5qw3v}} * {{cite book|title=Alaska and the Klondike: a journey to the New Eldorado, with hints to the traveller|publisher= C. A. Pearson |location= London|year=1899| url=http://ebooks.library.ualberta.ca/local/alaskaklondikejo00heiluoft}} * {{cite book|title= Mont Pelée and the tragedy of Martinique: a study of the great catastrophes of 1902, with observations and experiences in the field|publisher= J. B. Lippincott|location=Philadelphia, London|year=1903|url=https://archive.org/details/montpeletraged00heilrich}} * {{cite book|title=The Tower of Pelée: new studies of the great volcano of Martinique|publisher=J. B. Lippincott Co| location=Philadelphia, London|year=1904| url=http://ebooks.library.ualberta.ca/local/towerofpelenew00heiluoft}} * {{cite book<!--|language=en |first1=Angelo |last1=Heilprin -->|title=The eruption of Pelée: a summary and discussion of the phenomena and their sequels |publisher=Geographical Society of Philadelphia |location=Philadelphia|year=1908 |lccn=08017912 |url=http://www.manioc.org/patrimon/HASH0a691d818470fe033d61ec }}
=== Articles for the general public === * Popular Science Monthly articles by Heilprin can be found on Wikisource
=== With Louis Heilprin === * ''Lippincott's new gazetteer: a complete pronouncing gazetteer or geographical dictionary of the world, containing the most recent and authentic information respecting the countries, cities, towns, resorts, islands, rivers, mountains, seas, lakes, etc., in every portion of the globe'', Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Co., {{nobr|2 vol.}}, 1916, ©1911 New edition: 1922
=== Documents === * [http://www.ansp.org/research/library/archives/0100-0199/coll0147/ Documents (1871–1896)] in the archives of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. Includes 34 items, among them part of a diary of the expedition to Greenland; not included in the total: 18 stereographs of the eruption of Montagne Pelée
== References == * {{Anchor|Appletons}}"Heilprin, Phineas Mendel", in ''Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography'' on Wikisource. Biographical notes on Michael, Louis et Angelo * {{anchor|Pollak}}Gustav Pollak, ''[http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015030660552 Michael Heilprin and his sons: a biography]'', New York, Dodd, Mead, 1912. Biographies of Michael, Louis and Angelo, and generous excerpts from their works
== External links == *''Jewish Encyclopedia'': [https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7494-heilprin-angelo "Heilprin, Angelo"] by Cyrus Adler & Frank Vizetelly (1906). {{Commons category}}
== Notes == {{reflist|2}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heilprin, Angelo}} Category:1853 births Category:1907 deaths Category:People from Sátoraljaújhely Category:American non-fiction writers Category:19th-century American explorers Category:American volcanologists Category:19th-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:20th-century American painters Category:Hungarian Jews Category:Jewish American scientists Category:Jewish American painters Category:American paleontologists Category:American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Category:Hungarian people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:Emigrants from the Austrian Empire to the United States Category:Presidents of the American Association of Geographers Category:19th-century American male artists Category:20th-century American male artists Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society