Butler, Amos W. (Amos William), 1860-1937

Zoologist, anthropologist, sociologist.

Career of William Wallace Butler: born, Brookville, Indiana, March 11, 1810, the son of Amos Butler, 1770-1837, and Mary (Wallace) Butler, 1786-1852; moved with parents to Hanover, Indiana, attended Hanover College; returned to Brookville, 1832; started a general mercantile business, 1835; disposed of goods and devoted himself to superintending his farms and other business, 1842; married three times; son, Amos William Butler, child of third marriage; died November 21, 1903.

Career of Amos William Butler: born, Brookville, Indiana, October 1, 1860, the son of William Wallace Butler and Hannah (Wright) Butler; educated in Brookville schools, including a year or more at Brookville College; attended Hanover College; spent winter, 1879-1880, in Mexico, nominally attached to U.S. legation at Mexico City but actually engaged in field work in zoology and archaeology; before completing education spent several years in insurance business in Brookville, Indiana; married Mary I. Reynolds of Brookville, June 2, 1880; a founder of the Brookville Society of Natural History, 1881; a founder of the Indiana Academy of Science, 1885; A.B., Indiana University, 1894; president, Indiana Academy of Science, 1895; ornithologist, Department of Geology and Resources of Indiana, 1896-1897; secretary, Indiana Board of State Charities, 1898-1923; a founder of Indiana Audubon Society, 1898; president of Indiana State Truancy Board, 1898-1912, secretary, 1913-1921; A.M., Indiana University, 1900; a founder of American Anthropological Association, 1902; lecturer on economics, Purdue University, 1905; later lectured on public charities at Purdue, Indiana University, the University of Chicago, the Lane Theological Seminary, and the Chicago School of Philanthropy; president of National Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1906-1907; member of White House children's conference, 1909; president of American Prison Association, 1909-1910; chairman of American Committee on the International Prison Congress, Washington, D.C., 1910; LLD, Hanover College, 1915; Ph.D., Butler University, 1915; president of Indiana Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1915; secretary of Indiana Commission on Mental Defectives, 1915; delegate to 2nd Pan American Scientific Congress, Washington, D.C., 1915-1916; a founder of the Society of Indiana Pioneers, 1916; chairman of executive committee of Indiana Society for Mental Hygiene, 1918-1925; a founder of the American Mammalogists, 1919; LLD, Indiana University, 1922; delegate from the U.S. to the International Prison Congress, London, 1925; president of Indiana Society for Mental Hygiene, 1925-1930; senior sociologist, U.S. Bureau of Efficiency to advise the Congressional committee on Federal Penal and Reformatory Institutions, 1928-1929; member of Advisory Committee to President Hoover's National Committee on Law Observance and Enforcement, 1929-1931; secretary of Indiana Committee on Observance and Enforcement of Law, 1929-1931; a founder of the International Commission on Mental Hygiene, and a member of the 1st International Congress on Mental Hygiene, Washington, D.C., 1930; delegate from the U.S. to the International Prison Congress, Prague, 1930; member of the executive board of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, 1935; member American Ornithologists' Union; and fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Biographical data from Marcus Ward Lyon, Jr., Amos William Butler, Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, XLVII: 21-25, 1937; B.W. Evermann, Amos William Butler, Audubon Year Book of the Indiana Audubon Society, 1932, pp. 5-19.

Lists of Butler's numerous writings appear in the Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, XLVII: 25-30, 1937, and in the Audubon Year Book of the Indiana Audubon Society, 1932, pp. 5-19.