{{Short description|American entomologist and palaeontologist (1837-1911)}}{{redirect|Samuel Scudder|the DC Comics character|Samuel Joseph Scudder}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox person |name = Samuel Hubbard Scudder |image = Samuel Hubbard Scudder 1837-1911.jpg |alt = |caption = |birth_name = |birth_date = {{birth date|1837|4|13}} |birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts |death_date = {{death date and age|1911|5|17|1837|4|13}} |death_place = Boston, Massachusetts |other_names = |known_for = |occupation = Entomologist<br/>Paleontologist |signature = Signature of Samuel Hubbard Scudder.png }}
'''Samuel Hubbard Scudder''' (April 13, 1837 – May 17, 1911) was an American entomologist and paleontologist. He was a leading figure in entomology during his lifetime and the founder of insect paleontology in America. In addition to fossil insects, he was an authority on butterflies (Lepidoptera) and grasshoppers (Orthoptera).
==Biography== Scudder was born on April 13, 1837, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Charles Scudder and Sarah Lathrop (Coit) Scudder. His father was a successful merchant, and both parents had Puritan roots dating back to the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1620s. He was raised in a strict Calvinist Congregational household.<ref name="Leach">Leach (2013)</ref> One of his younger brothers, Horace Scudder, became a noted author and editor of the ''Atlantic Monthly'',<ref name="Cockerell">Cockerell (1911)</ref> while his niece Vida Dutton Scudder was a writer and social activist.
Scudder attended Boston Latin School, and then enrolled in Williams College in 1853 at the age of 16. He studied with naturalist Paul Chadbourne and geologist Ebenezer Emmons. Under their influence, Scudder developed an interest in natural history, especially entomology. He became an ardent collector of butterflies in the nearby Berkshire Hills.<ref name="Leach" /><ref name="Mallis">Mallis (1971)</ref> By the age of 19, Scudder was committed to pursuing a career studying insects.<ref name="Mayor">Mayor (1919)</ref>
Scudder graduated from Williams in 1847 at the head of his class. He then entered the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard to study under Louis Agassiz, the most influential scientist in America at the time. After studying with Agassiz for four years, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1862, and then continued to work for Agassiz for another two years.<ref name="Mallis" /> Around this time, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was strongly debated in American scientific circles. Agassiz remained a staunch opponent of evolution, while Scudder, after initially siding with Agassiz's view, came gradually to accept Darwin's theory and build it into his entomological work.<ref name=Sorensen>Sorensen (1995), pp. 198-204</ref>
Scudder became a leading figure in American entomology, and was especially noted for his work with grasshoppers (Orthoptera), butterflies (Lepidoptera), and insect paleontology.<ref name="SIA1">Smithsonian</ref> Although he made significant contributions in all these areas, many of his contemporaries felt Scudder was most notable for his study of grasshoppers. He was a world authority on Orthoptera classification, biology, and distribution.<ref name="Mallis" /> In 1862, he wrote his first paper on the topic, describing 115 new species.<ref name="Essig">Essig (1931)</ref> During his career he wrote 180 papers on grasshoppers and described 106 genera and 630 species.<ref name="Cockerell"/> Willis Blatchley said, "to him [Scudder] more than to all his predecessors and contemporaries combined is due our present knowledge of the Orthoptera."<ref name="SciBio">Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography (2008)</ref>
In 1889 Scudder completed his monumental treatise, ''Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada'' incorporating 30 years of work on the physiology, life history, distribution, and classification of butterflies. This publication cemented his reputation as a leading lepidopterist of his day, and remained a standard and influential work for many years.<ref name="Mayor"/><ref>Sterling (1997)</ref> In addition to numerous scientific papers, Scudder also wrote several popular accounts of butterflies for the general public.
[[File:Prodryas.png|thumb|left|200 px|Fossil butterfly, ''Prodryas persephone'', described by Scudder in 1878]] In 1865, Scudder wrote his first paper on fossil insects, ''Devonian Insects of New Brunswick''.<ref name="Cockerell"/> After the Civil War, the extensive explorations of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) led to the discovery of many fossil insects. From 1886 to 1892, Scudder was employed as the staff paleontologist to analyze and publish these findings for the USGS. His extensive work was summarized in ''The Fossil Insects of North America'' (two volumes, 1890) and in 1891 he prepared a valuable index of the fossil insects of the world. Scudder eventually described more than 1100 new species of fossil insects, and wrote 122 papers on the subject.<ref name="Mayor"/>
Beginning in 1862, Scudder had a long association with the Boston Society of Natural History, where he served in various roles, including recording secretary, librarian, custodian, vice president (1874-1880), and president (1880-1887). He also worked as an assistant librarian at Harvard from 1879 to 1882, and held the office of librarian for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His interest in librarianship and bibliography led him to compile and publish in 1879 a catalog of scientific serials of all countries from 1633 to 1876. He also published ''Nomenclator Zoologicus'' (1882–1884), a seminal and comprehensive list of all generic names in zoology, including insects.<ref name="Mayor"/>
In his other contributions, Scudder was co-founder of the Cambridge Entomological Club and its journal ''Psyche'' (1874); general secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1875), and vice president (1894); cofounder, editor, and guide of the Appalachian Mountain Club (1878);<ref>Leach, William (2013) [https://books.google.com/books?id=tQDTyf_-zuQC&pg=PA48 ''Butterfly People''] Pantheon Books {{ISBN|9780375422935}} pg 48</ref> first editor of ''Science'' magazine;<ref name="SIA1"/> (1883–1885) and USGS paleontologist (1886–1892).<ref name="SIA1"/> He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1878.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=1878;smode=advanced;startDoc=21|access-date=2021-05-12|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
In 1867, Scudder married Ethelinda Jane Blatchford, who died in 1872. Their only son, Gardner, was close to his father and accompanied him on many of his field trips. Gardner died of tuberculosis in 1896. At about the same time, Scudder first showed signs of Parkinson's disease, and by 1902, his disability forced him to retire. He gave his personal insect collections to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard and his library to the Boston Society of Natural History. He died in Boston on May 17, 1911, after several years of seclusion.<ref name="Mallis" />
==Works== Scudder was a prolific writer, publishing 791 papers between 1858 and 1902. His primary focus was the descriptive taxonomy of insects and insect fossils. He also wrote about insect biogeography and paleobiogeography, insect behavior, ontogeny and phylogeny, insect songs, evolution, and insect biology. In addition to his scientific works, Scudder also wrote several popular books and articles on butterflies.<ref name="Mallis" /> Some of his more notable titles include: * ''Nomenclator Zoologicus'' (1862) * ''Historical Sketch of the generic names proposed for butterflies, A contribution to systematic nomenclature'' (1875) <ref name="f831">{{cite book| title=Historical Sketch of the generic names proposed for butterflies, A contribution to systematic nomenclature |last=Scudder|first=Samuel Hubbard| url=https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch00scudrich/page/n1/mode/2up | access-date=2024-07-12}}</ref> * ''Butterflies: Their Structure, Changes, and Life Histories'' (1881)<ref name="p931">{{cite book| title=Butterflies; their structure, changes and life-histories, with special reference to American forms. Being an application of the "Doctrine of descent" to the study of butterflies. With an appendix of practical instructions |last= Scudder| first=Samuel Hubbard| url=https://archive.org/details/bp_5603691 | access-date=2024-07-12}}</ref> * ''Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada'' (1889) * ''The Fossil Insects of North America'' (two volumes, 1890) * ''Index to the Known Fossil Insects of the World'' (1891) <ref name="m701">{{cite book| title=Index to the known fossil insects of the world : including myriopods and arachnids |last = Scudder|first= Samuel Hubbard| url=https://archive.org/details/indextoknownfoss00scud/page/n1/mode/2up | access-date=2024-07-12}}</ref> * ''Tertiary Rhynchophorous Coleoptera of the United States'' (1893) * ''The Life of a Butterfly'' (1893) * ''Frail Children of the Air: Excursions into the World of Butterflies'' (1895) * ''Revision of the Orthopteran Group Melanopli'' (1897) <ref name="o619">{{cite book| title=Revision of the orthopteran group Melanopli (Acridiidae), with special reference to North American forms|last = Scudder| first = Samuel Hubbard| date=2024-06-26 | url=https://archive.org/details/revisionoforthop00scudrich/page/14/mode/2up | access-date=2024-07-12}}</ref> * ''Everyday Butterflies'' (1899) * ''Catalogue of the Described Orthoptera of the United States and Canada'' (1900) * ''Adephagous and Clavicorn Coleoptera from the Tertiary Deposits at Florissant, Colorado'' (1900) * ''Index to North American Orthoptera'' (1901)
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==Additional references== *{{cite journal|last1=Cockerell|first1=T. D. A.|title=Samuel Hubbard Scudder|journal=Science|date=1911|volume=34|issue=872|pages=338–342|jstor=1638227|pmid=17802101|doi=10.1126/science.34.872.338|bibcode=1911Sci....34..338C|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448070}} *{{cite book|last1=Essig|first1=E. O.|title=A History of Entomology|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.7958|date=1931|publisher=MacMillan Company|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.7958/page/n768 758]–762}} *{{cite book|last1=Leach|first1=William|title=Butterfly People|url=https://archive.org/details/butterflypeoplea00leac|url-access=registration|date=2013|publisher=Pantheon Books|isbn=9780375422935 }} *{{cite book|last1=Mallis|first1=Arnold|title=American Entomologists|url=https://archive.org/details/americanentomolo0000mall|url-access=registration|date=1971|publisher=Rutgers University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanentomolo0000mall/page/185 185–191]|isbn=9780813506869 }} *{{cite journal|last1=Mayor|first1=Alfred Goldsborough|title=Samuel Hubbard Scudder 1837-1911|journal=National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs|date=1919|volume=17|issue=3|url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/scudder-samuel.pdf}} *{{cite web|last1=Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7249|title=Samuel Hubbard Scudder Papers|url=https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217406}} *{{cite book|last1=Sorensen|first1=W. Conner|title=Brethren of the Net, American Entomology, 1840-1880|date=1995|publisher=University of Alabama Press}} *{{cite encyclopedia| editor-last = Sterling| editor-first = Keir B.| encyclopedia = Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists| title = Scudder, Samuel Hubbard| year = 1997| publisher = Greenwood Press}} *{{cite book|title=Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. 12|date=2008|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|page=264|chapter=Scudder, Samuel Hubbard}}
==External links== {{commons category|Samuel Hubbard Scudder}} * [https://openlibrary.org/a/OL154974A/Samuel_Hubbard_Scudder Samuel Hubbard Scudder Open Library] * [https://archive.org/details/writingsofsamuel00dimm The writings of Samuel Hubbard Scudder (1879) by George Dimmock] * [https://archive.org/details/classedannotate00Scud A classed and annotated bibliography of fossil insects (1890) by S.H. Scudder] * [http://www.bethel.edu/~dhoward/resources/Agassizfish/Agassizfish.htm The Student, the Fish, and Agassiz]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Scudder, Samuel Hubbard}} Category:1837 births Category:1911 deaths Category:American paleontologists Category:American lepidopterists Category:Scientists from Boston Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Williams College alumni Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society