William Tufts Brigham (1841–1926) was an American geologist, botanist, ethnologist and the first director of theBernice P. Bishop Museum inHonolulu.[1]
William Tufts Brigham was born on May 24, 1841. After finishing theBoston Latin School he attended theHarvard University and graduated with the degreeMaster of Arts in 1862. In 1864 he studied Botany and from 1864 and 1865 he accompanied botanistHorace Mann Jr. on Botanical surveys to the Hawaiian Islands where they discovered many new plant taxa.
In 1867, Brigham was called to the bar after moving back to Boston to study law under the tutelage of his father. He taught biology for a year at Harvard and over the next dozen years lectured and published books and articles on classical art, volcanology, geology, seismology, and botany.
In 1883, he joined a group of entrepreneurs that bought and operated a plantation in Guatemala. The venture failed, and he declared bankruptcy. During bankruptcy proceedings, a shortage of $17,000 was discovered in his legal trust account (more than $375,000 in 2009 dollars). Brigham was arrested in February 1887 for allegedly embezzling the money. Though the charges were never proven, he was forced to liquidate all his remaining assets, and “his family and friends cast him out, penniless and destitute.” He fled to Hawaii, where he was given a job by his old friendCharles Reed Bishop.[2]
By 1892 Bishop hired him as the first curator of theBernice P. Bishop Museum and from 1898 until his firing in 1918 he was the first director of that museum. He died on January 30, 1926. Brigham was a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, of theCalifornia Academy of Sciences, of thePhiladelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. The Hawaiian lobelioid genusBrighamia was named in his honour.
Brigham authored 46 articles and monographs on Hawaiian botany, geology, and material culture such as mat weaving, tapa cloth, feather work, and stone and wood carvings.[3]
