Henry Crampton

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Henry Crampton | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Prof. H.E. Crampton LCCN2014684632 (cropped).jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Henry Edward Crampton Jr. | birth_date = {{birth date|1875|1|5}} | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1956|2|26|1875|1|5}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | siglum = | pronounce = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = | workplaces = Columbia University<br/>Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br/>American Museum of Natural History | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = Columbia College (PhD) | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse = {{marriage|Marian Maud Tully|1896}} | partner = | children = 2 | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = }}

'''Henry Edward Crampton''' (January 5, 1875 – February 26, 1956) was an American evolutionary biologist and malacologist who specialized in land snails. Crampton undertook the first major study of evolution in nature in his research in the Society Islands. Crampton made twelve separate expeditions over the course of his career to Moorea near Tahiti to study the land snail genus ''Partula'', while years more were spent measuring and cataloguing his specimens. In all, he dedicated nearly half-a-century to the study. Crampton taught as a professor at Columbia University and Barnard College from 1904 to 1943. He also worked as a curator at the American Museum of Natural History.

==Early life== Henry Edward Crampton Jr. was born on January 5, 1875, in New York City<ref name="birthday">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96232477/this-is-my-34th-birthday-5-jan-1909-fr/ |title=This is my 34th Birthday |date=1909-01-05 |newspaper=Freeport Journal-Standard |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2022-02-22}}{{Open access}}</ref> to Dorcas Matilda (née Miller) and Henry Edward Crampton, a surgeon in New York City.<ref name="obit">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/02/27/archives/henry-crampton-noted-zoologist-scientist-whose-studies-on-partula.html |title=HENRY CRAMPTON, NOTED ZOOLOGIST |date=1956-02-27 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2022-02-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/01/28/archives/mrs-henry-e-crampton-widow-of-new-york-surgeon-is-dead-at-her-home.html |title=Mrs. Henry E. Crampton |date=1940-01-28 |page=32 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2022-02-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1882/05/07/archives/obituary-2-no-title.html |title=Died |date=1882-05-07 |page=9 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2022-02-23}}</ref> He attended the College of the City of New York and graduated from Columbia College (later Columbia University) in 1893.<ref name="birthday"/> He received his Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia in 1899.<ref name="obit"/>

==Career== thumb|right|Drawing of Crampton experimenting with insects (1898) After graduating in 1893, Crampton became an assistant in biology at Columbia University. He stayed in that role until 1895, when he became an instructor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<ref name="birthday"/><ref name="barnard">{{Cite news |url=https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu/islandora/object/bc%3Abulletin-19560301-1 |title=Prof. Crampton Dies; Was Noted Zoologist |date=1956-03-01 |work=Barnard Bulletin |access-date=2022-02-22}}</ref> The following year, 1896, he returned to Columbia as a lecturer.<ref name="birthday"/> Crampton became a faculty member at Barnard College in 1899. By 1904, Crampton became a professor of zoology at Barnard College and Columbia University. He served as acting provost at Barnard in 1918 and 1919.<ref name="barnard"/> He remained a professor until 1943.<ref name="goldenwedding">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1946/10/28/archives/golden-wedding-of-columbia-cramptons-finds-zoologist-studying-wife.html |title=Golden Wedding of Columbia Cramptons Finds Zoologist Studying; Wife Aids Staff |date=1946-10-28 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2022-02-23}}</ref>

Crampton was the curator of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History.<ref name="barnard"/> Stephen Jay Gould has cited Crampton as an inspiration, both for his evolutionary observations on ''Partula'', and the enormous dedication and effort required to undertake them. He was also the inspiration for future work on ''Partula'' by Bryan Clarke, James Murray and Michael Johnson. This research was central to much of the development of the science of genetics.{{citation needed |date=February 2022}} He also worked at the Carnegie Institute's Station for Experimental Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Bishop Museum in Honolulu.<ref name="birthday"/><ref name="barnard"/>

Crampton's monographs remain some of the most remarkable publications on any species, for their meticulous detail and the beautiful illustrations they contain. His work on the Society Islands species was never finished, his monographs covering only those of Tahiti and Moorea. The volumes on Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora were never finished. This work is being revived, and the centenary of his first volume (Tahiti in 1916) is to be marked by the publication of a new monograph on all the Partulidae.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://islandbiodiversity.com/crampton.htm |title=Partula - icons of evolution |access-date=2020-02-22}}</ref>

During World War I, Crampton worked with Hollis Godfrey to organize the Council of National Defense, and served as the vice chairman of the Committee on Engineering and Education.<ref>{{cite book|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|author=U.S. Council of National Defense|title=Annual Report of the United States Council of National Defense|year=1917|volume=83|url={{Google books|ILgMV5pw_foC|page=111|plainurl=yes}}|pages=111–113}}</ref>

He also served as president of the New York Academy of Sciences and as secretary of the American Eugenics Society. He was also a member of the Washington Academy of Sciences, New York Zoological Society, American Society of Naturalists and The Explorers Club.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="barnard"/> In 1929, he received an honorary degree in science from Columbia.<ref name="obit"/>

==Personal life and death== Crampton married Marian Maud Tully on October 27, 1896, in New York City.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96234285/crampton-tully-28-oct-1896-the-new-yor/ |title=Crampton–Tully |page=5 |newspaper=The New York Times |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2022-02-23}}{{Open access}}</ref> Together, they had two children: Henry and Ann. Henry E. Crampton Jr. married Harriet Jessup, the granddaughter of Reverend Jessup, founder of the American University of Beirut.<ref name="goldenwedding"/><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/31/archives/miss-ann-crampton-prospective-bride.html |title=Miss Ann Crampton Prospective Bride |date=1964-12-31 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2022-02-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96229159/miss-harriet-jessup-wed-to-henry-e-cram/ |title=Miss Harriet Jessup Wed To Henry E. Crampton Jr. |date=1930-10-12 |page=2B |newspaper=Brooklyn Eagle |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2022-02-22}}{{Open access}}</ref>

Crampton died on February 26, 1956, at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="barnard"/>

==Selected bibliography== * Crampton H. E. 1916. [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16442 ''The Doctrine of Evolution Its Basis and Its Scope'']. New, York, Columebia University Press. * Crampton H. E. 1916. ''Studies on the variation, distribution and evolution of the genus Partula. The species inhabiting Tahiti.'' Carnegie Institution of Washington, 228: 1-311. * Crampton H. E. 1925. [https://archive.org/details/studiesonvariati00cramuoft ''Studies on the variation, distribution and evolution of the genus Partula. The species of the Mariana Islands, Guam and Saipan.''] Carnegie Institution of Washington, 228a: 1-116. * Cooke C. M. & Crampton H. E. (1930) "New species of ''Partula''". ''B. P. Bishop. Mus. Occ. Papers'' '''9''': 3-5. * Crampton H. E. 1932. [https://archive.org/details/studiesonvariati03cramuoft ''Studies on the variation, distribution and evolution of the genus Partula. The species inhabiting Moorea.''] Carnegie Institution of Washington, 410: 1-335.

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== * Gould, Stephen Jay [1993] (2007) "Unenchanted Evening," ''Eight Little Piggies.'' Vintage Books. {{ISBN|978-0-09-950744-4}} * [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079682 Finding aid to the Henry Crampton papers at Columbia University.]

== External links == {{Commons category|Henry Crampton}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=6718}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry Edward Crampton}} * [https://archivalcollections.drexel.edu/repositories/3/resources/1205 Henry E. Crampton Papers on the genus Partula, Drexel University] * [https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/194581 Henry E. Crampton correspondence, 1915 - 1949, Johns Hopkins Libraries]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crampton, Henry}} Category:1875 births Category:1956 deaths Category:Scientists from New York City Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Category:People associated with the American Museum of Natural History Category:Bishop Museum Category:American paleontologists Category:American evolutionary biologists Category:American malacologists Category:Council of National Defense