Nathaniel Shaler

{{Short description|American paleontologist and geologist (1841–1906)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Nathaniel Southgate Shaler | image = Picture of Nathaniel Shaler.jpg | caption = Shaler in 1894 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1841|2|20|mf=y}} | birth_place = {{nowrap|[[Newport, Kentucky|Newport]], [[Kentucky]]}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1906|4|10|1841|2|20|mf=y}} | death_place = {{nowrap|[[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], [[Massachusetts]]}} | residence = | citizenship = | ethnicity = | field = [[Paleontology]], [[Geology]] | work_institution = [[Lawrence Scientific School]] | alma_mater = [[Harvard College]] | doctoral_advisor = [[Louis Agassiz]] | doctoral_students = [[Charles Henry Smyth Jr.]]<br>[[Edward A. Birge]] | notable_students = [[Ralph Stockman Tarr]] | known_for = | author_abbrev_zoo = Shaler | prizes = | religion = | signature = Signature of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler.jpg }} '''Nathaniel Southgate Shaler''' (February 20, 1841 – April 10, 1906)<ref name=ea>{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate}}</ref> was an American [[paleontologist]] and [[geologist]] who wrote extensively on the [[theological]] and scientific implications of the theory of [[evolution]], whose work is now considered scientific racism.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Harvard |first1=University |title=Nathaniel S. Shaler |url=https://eps.harvard.edu/nathaniel-s-shaler-and-scientific-racism |website=Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences |publisher=Harvard |access-date=15 January 2023}}</ref>

==Biography== Born to a slave-holding family in Kentucky in 1841,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Livingstone|first=D. N.|date=1980|title=Nature and Man in America: Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and the Conservation of Natural Resources|journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers|volume=5|issue=3|pages=369–382|doi=10.2307/621848|jstor=621848|bibcode=1980TrIBG...5..369L }}</ref> Shaler studied at [[Harvard College]]'s [[Lawrence Scientific School]] under [[Louis Agassiz]].<ref>{{cite book| last= Shaler | first= Nathaniel | title= The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler | year = 1907 | place= Boston | publisher= Houghton Mifflin | pages= 93–100}} Cited in {{Cite book|last=Cooper|first=Lane|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/louisagassizaste1917coop#page/14/mode/2up | chapter= How Agassiz Taught Professor Shaler | pages = 14–26 |title=Louis Agassiz as a teacher; illustrative extracts on his method of instruction|date=1917|place=Ithaca| publisher= Comstock Publishing }}</ref> After graduating in 1862, Shaler went on to become a Harvard fixture in his own right, as lecturer (1868), professor of paleontology for two decades (1869–1888) and as professor of geology for nearly two more (1888–1906).<ref name=dab>{{Cite DAB|title=Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate|year=1935|author=George P. Merrill and Eleanor R. Dobson}}</ref> Beginning in 1891, he was dean of the Lawrence School.<ref name=ea/> Shaler was appointed director of the [[Kentucky Geological Survey]] in 1873, and devoted a part of each year until 1880 to that work.<ref>Zabilka, Ivan L. (1980). "Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and the Kentucky Geological Survey," ''The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society'', Vol. 80, No. 4, pp. 408-431.</ref> In 1884, he was appointed geologist to the [[U.S. Geological Survey]] in charge of the Atlantic division.<ref name=acab/> He was commissioner of agriculture for Massachusetts at different times, and was president of the [[Geological Society of America]] in 1895.<ref name=ea/> He also served two years as a [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] officer in the [[American Civil War]].<ref name=acab>{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate|year=1900}}</ref>

== Research: ecology, geology, and scientific racism == Early in his professional career, Shaler was broadly a [[creationist]] and anti-Darwinist. This was largely out of deference to the brilliant but old-fashioned Agassiz, whose patronage served Shaler well in ascending the Harvard ladder. When his own position at Harvard was secure, Shaler gradually accepted [[Darwinism]] in principle but viewed it through a neo-[[Lamarckian]] lens. Shaler extended [[Charles Darwin]]'s work on the importance of [[earthworm]] soil [[bioturbation]] to [[soil formation]]<ref>{{cite book |title=The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms, with observations on their habits |last=Darwin |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Darwin |year=1881 |publisher=John Murray |location=London |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Freeman_VegetableMouldandWorms.html }}</ref> to other animals, such as [[ants]].<ref>Shaler, N. S. (1891). ''The Origin and Nature of Soils'', in Powell, J. W., ed., USGS 12th Annual report 1890-1891: Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, pp. 213-45.</ref> Like many other evolutionists of the time, Shaler incorporated basic tenets of [[natural selection]]—chance, contingency, opportunism—into a picture of order, purpose and progress in which characteristics were inherited through the efforts of individual organisms.

Shaler was an apologist for slavery and an outspoken believer in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. In his later career, Shaler continued to support Agassiz's [[polygenism]], a theory of human origins that was often used to support racial discrimination, falling under the category of [[Scientific racism]].<ref>Livingstone, David N. (1987). ''Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and the Culture of American Science''. University of Alabama Press, pp. 124-125.</ref> In his 1884 article, "The Negro Problem", published in the [[Atlantic Monthly]], Shaler claimed that black people freed from slavery were "like children lost in the wood, needing the old protection of the strong mastering hand," that they became increasingly dominated by their "animal nature" as they grew from children into adults, and American slavery had been "infinitely the mildest and most decent system of slavery that ever existed."<ref>Shaler, N.S. (1884). "[https://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=atla;cc=atla;rgn=full%20text;idno=atla0054-5;didno=atla0054-5;view=image;seq=0702;node=atla0054-5%3A18 The Negro Problem]," ''Atlantic Monthly'', p. 697-698.</ref>

Shaler published work describing the physical geography of different continents and linking these geologic settings to the intelligence and strength of human races that inhabited these spaces. In ''Nature and Man in America,'' Shaler justifies the superiority of the Aryan race based on their development within European topography, "marvelously suited to be the cradles of people", erroneously attributing their origin to the Scandinavian provinces, "a field which seems to have been the seat of the strongest men in the world for thousands of years." Expanding upon this logic, Shaler explains that a Scandinavian origin is most fitting because it would seem strange that the "most vigorous and at the same time the most plastic of the world-peoples should have developed among the limited opportunities afforded by high Asia." Similarly, Shaler disparages the topography of the Americas, Africa, and Australia, claiming that these continents "have shown by their human products that they are unfitted to be the cradle places of great peoples." Nevertheless, Shaler is particularly interested in North America. Although he explains that its "large, simple, and easily comprehensible geographic features" as well as unfavorable climate for agriculture render the continent "unfit to cradle great peoples", he argues that the topography is perfectly suited for a race with better characteristics. Thus, Shaler argues that North America has "peculiar advantages” for American people (of Aryan descent) because the climate and topography of the land is ideal for the institution of slavery, which made it possible to cultivate this "new and rude land".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Nature and Man in America|last=Shaler|first=Nathaniel Southgate|publisher=C. Scribner's Sons|year=1897|location=New York|pages=148–173}}</ref>

Shaler believed that slavery was greatly beneficial for the United States, and even went so far as to suggest that slaves themselves benefitted from this institution, suggesting slavery "led to the rapid accumulation of wealth, and in this way brought the people the sooner into a condition in which they could control their own destiny." Expressing concern that the South will "release into barbarism", Shaler proposes that "the advance of the negro to a satisfactory grade of development still depends upon his remaining in close contact with the superior race."<ref name=":0" />

== Legacy at Harvard University == In his later career, Shaler served as Harvard's Dean of Sciences and was considered one of the university's most popular teachers.<ref>Bacon, H. Philip (1955). "Fireworks in the Classroom: Nathaniel Southgate Shaler as a Teacher," ''Journal of Geography'' '''54''', p. 350.</ref> He published scores of long and short treatises in his lifetime, with subjects ranging from [[topographical]] surveys to [[moral philosophy]]. Shaler mentored many students, including [[William Morris Davis]], who worked for him as a field assistant, and was later hired by Shaler to teach at Harvard.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://harvardmagazine.com/2018/09/william-morris-davis-cycle-of-erosion|title=William Morris Davis|last=Koch|first=Philip S.|date=2018-09-07|website=Harvard Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-04-01}}</ref> Davis became a renowned geographer, and similar to Shaler, wrote about how different geographies produced more or less fit societies.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001272700|title=Elementary physical geography|last=Davis|first=William Morris|date=1902|publisher=Ginn|location=Boston}}</ref> When Shaler passed, a fund was set up by alumni in his honor, which was specified to be used for field experiences, and these funds are still in use for student field trips today.<ref>Personal communication with Paul Kelley, Harvard Earth & Planetary Sciences Department administrator</ref>

Shaler was a neighbor of businessman [[Gordon McKay]], and convinced McKay to leave most of his enormous fortune to fund expansion of Harvard's science programs.{{refn|{{cite news|last=Lewis|first=Harry R.|title=Gordon McKay: Brief life of an inventor with a lasting Harvard legacy: 1821-1903|url=http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/09/gordon-mckay.html|access-date=3 February 2013|newspaper=[[Harvard Magazine]]|author-link=Harry R. Lewis|date=September–October 2007}} }}

==Works== * (1870). ''On the Phosphate Beds of South Carolina''. * (1876–82). ''Geological Survey of Kentucky'' [6 vols.] * (1876). ''Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Kentucky''. * (1878). ''Thoughts on the Nature of Intellectual Property and its Importance to the State''. * (1880). "The Geology of Boston and its Environs," in ''The Memorial History of Boston''. * (1881). ''[https://archive.org/details/illustrationsofe00shal Illustrations of the Earth's Surface; Glaciers]'' [with [[William Morris Davis]]]. *(1884) "The Negro Problem", article in the ''Atlantic Monthly'' * (1884). ''[https://archive.org/details/firstbookingeolo00shaluoft A First Book in Geology]''. * (1885). ''[https://archive.org/details/kentuckypioneerc0000shal Kentucky, a Pioneer Commonwealth]'' ["American Commonwealth Series"]. * (1891). ''[https://archive.org/details/naturemanamerica00shal Nature and Man in America]''. * (1891). ''Origin and Nature of Soils''. * (1892). ''[https://archive.org/details/storycontinent00shalrich The Story of Our Continent]''. * (1893). ''[https://archive.org/details/interpretationof0000shal The Interpretation of Nature]''. * (1894). ''The United States of America'' ([https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesofa01shal Volume 1]) ([https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesofam02shaluoft Volume 2]) * (1895). ''[https://archive.org/details/domesticatedanim00shal Domesticated Animals]''. * (1895). ''The Geology of the Road-Building Stones of Massachusetts''. * (1896). ''[https://archive.org/details/americanhighways00shal American Highways]''. * (1898). ''Geology of the Cape Cod District''. * (1898). ''[https://archive.org/details/outlinesofearthsh00shalrich Outlines of the Earth's History]''. * (1899). ''Geology of the Narragansett Basin''. * (1900). ''[https://archive.org/details/individualastud00shalgoog The Individual: Study of Life and Death]''. * (1903). ''[https://archive.org/details/comparisonoffeat00shalrich A Comparison of the Features of the Earth and the Moon]''. * (1904). ''[https://archive.org/details/citizenastudyin01shalgoog The Citizen: A Study of the Individual and the Government]''. * (1904). ''[https://archive.org/details/neighbornaturalh0000shal The Neighbor]''. * (1905). ''[https://archive.org/details/manearth00shaluoft Man and the Earth]''. * (1909). ''[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofn00shale The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler]''.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Cole, Grenville A. J.|author-link=Grenville Cole|title=Review of ''The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler''|journal=Nature|date=6 January 1910|volume=82|issue=2097|pages=274–275|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429526|bibcode=1910Natur..82..274C|doi=10.1038/082274a0|s2cid=3989897|doi-access=free}}</ref>

;Fiction * (1903). ''[https://archive.org/details/deathofessex00shal Elizabeth of England: A Dramatic Romance in Five Parts]''.

;Poetry * (1906). ''From Old Fields: Poems of the Civil War''.

==See also== * ''[[Bully for Brontosaurus]]'' * [[Jay Backus Woodworth]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * Adams, Michael C.C. (1998). "'When the Man knows Death': The Civil War Poems of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler," ''The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society'', Vol. 96, No. 1, pp. 1–28. * Berg, Walter (1957). ''Nathaniel Southgate Shaler: A Critical Study of an Earth Scientist''. Ph.D. thesis, University of Washington. * Bladen, Wilford A. (1983). "Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and Early American Geography," in Pradyumna P. Karan (ed.), ''The Evolution of Geographic Thought in America: A Kentucky Root''. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. * Davis, William M. (1906). [https://archive.org/stream/educationalfoun05unkngoog#page/n829/mode/2up "Nathaniel Southgate Shaler,"] ''Educational Foundations'' '''17''' (10), pp. 746–755. * Koelsch, William A. (1979). "Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, 1841-1906", in T.W. Freeman & Philippe Pinchemel (ed.), ''Geographer: Bibliographical Studies'', Vol. III. London: Mansell. * Lane, A. C. (1926). "Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (1841-1906)," ''Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences'', Vol. 61, No. 12, pp. 557–561. * [[David N. Livingstone|Livingstone, D. N.]] (1980). "Nature and Man in America: Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and the Conservation of Natural Resources," ''Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers'', New Series, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 369–382. * [[William Roscoe Thayer|Thayer, William Roscoe]] (1906). [https://archive.org/stream/harvardgraduate16morrgoog#page/n20/mode/2up "Nathaniel Southgate Shaler,"] ''The Harvard Graduates Magazine'' '''15''', pp. 1–9. * [[Langdon Warner|Warner, Langdon]] (1906). [https://archive.org/stream/worldswork12gard#page/7676/mode/2up "Nathaniel Southgate Shaler,"] ''The World's Work'' '''12''', pp. 7676–7677.

==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}} {{Commons category}} * {{Librivox author |id=12497}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=8112}} * [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=%22Shaler,%20Nathaniel%20Southgate,%201841-1906.%22&type=author&inst= Works by Nathaniel Shaler], at [[HathiTrust]] * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Nathaniel Southgate Shaler}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaler, Nathaniel}} [[Category:1841 births]] [[Category:1906 deaths]] [[Category:American paleontologists]] [[Category:American soil scientists]] [[Category:Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni]] [[Category:Harvard University faculty]] [[Category:Lamarckism]] [[Category:Presidents of the Geological Society of America]] [[Category:People from Newport, Kentucky]] [[Category:Proponents of scientific racism]]