Charles Pickering | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1805-11-10)November 10, 1805 |
| Died | March 17, 1878(1878-03-17) (aged 72) |
| Resting place | Mount Auburn Cemetery 42°22′19″N71°08′25″W / 42.3720400572368°N 71.1403224970515°W /42.3720400572368; -71.1403224970515 |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | Harvard College,Harvard University,Harvard Medical School |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | anthropology,botany,medicine,scientific racism |
Charles Pickering (November 10, 1805 – March 17, 1878) was an Americannaturalist,curator, author, and physician.[1]
Born on Starucca Creek, UpperSusquehanna, Pennsylvania, the grandson of ColonelTimothy Pickering, after the death of his father he was raised in the house of his esteemed grandfather inWenham, Massachusetts. Despite his part in the student rebellion of 1823, he received a medical degree fromHarvard University in 1826.[1] A practicing physician inPhiladelphia, he became active as librarian andcurator at the city'sAcademy of Natural Sciences.
Pickering went with theUnited States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 as one of its naturalists.Charles Wilkes, the expedition's commander, namedPickering Passage in honor of Charles Pickering.[2] His journal of the Expedition was a major influence on Wilkes'Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition.
From 1842 to 1843, Pickering curated the collection from the Wilkes Expedition, which was housed at thePatent Office in Washington DC, these collections were to form the foundation of theSmithsonian Institution.[3]
Pickering was apolygenist; he believed that different races had been created separately. In 1843, he traveled to the Middle East, Zanzibar and India to continue his research for his book on the Races of Man. In 1848, Pickering publishedRaces of Man and Their Geographical Distribution, which enumerated eleven races.
He later moved toBoston, where he resumed his medical practice, and eventually died on March 17, 1878.[4]
He was married to Sarah Stoddard Pickering, who posthumously published his final work. He was an associate of many important figures in America's intellectual landscape, includingAsa Gray,Horatio Hale,James Dwight Dana andLouis Agassiz.
Asubspecies of North American garter snake,Thamnophis sirtalis pickeringii, is named in his honor.[5]
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