Dall, William Healey, 1845-1927

William Healey Dall was born on 21 August 1845 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA He entered the service of the Land Office of the Illinois Central Railroad in Chicago, spending his evenings studying at the Chicago Academy of Sciences. In 1865, he was appointed naturalist on the United States Western Union Telegraph Expedition (Alaskan Division), 1865-1867 (leader Robert Kennicott), sent by the Western Union Telegraph Company to survey a route for, and to construct, a telegraph line through Alaska by way of Yukon River and Seward Peninsula, in connection with plans to establish a telegraph link between the United States and Europe by way of Bering Strait. After the death of Kennicott in May 1866, Dall took over the leadership of the scientific work. He remained for a further year to continue his scientific work on the United States scientific expedition, 1867-1868, making a reconnaissance of the geology and natural history of Norton Sound and the lower Yukon River below Nulato. As a result of his three-year residence in Alaska, he subsequently published a report on the country's geography, history, inhabitants and resources.

From 1871 until 1884, Dall was employed by the United States Coast Survey, under whose auspices he continued his investigation of Alaska and the northern Pacific Coast. In 1884, he was appointed palaeontologist to the United States Geological Survey, a post he held until 1925. While working at the US Geological Survey, Dall travelled as geologist on the United States Harriman Alaska Expedition (leader Edward Harriman) in 1899, sailing in George W Elder to the islands of southeast Alaska and into the Bering Sea. He served as honorary curator of molluscs at the Smithsonian Institution from 1868 to 1927 and at the U.S. National Museum from 1880 to 1927. He held the chair of invertebrate palaeontology in the Wagner Institute of Science between 1893 and 1927 and served as honorary curator of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii from 1899 to 1915. He died on 27 March 1927 in Washington, DC.

Published work Alaska and its resources by William Healey Dall, Arno Press (1970) SPRI Library Shelf (49)[1870] The Yukon Territory, the narrative of W H Dall, leader of the expedition to Alaska in 1866-1868, by William Healey Dall, Douglas Mercer Dawson and William Ogilvie, Downey & Co. Ltd London (1898) SPRI Library Shelf (41)91(091)[pub.1898]

W.H. Dall, born August 21, 1845, was a naturalist. He was part of the Western Union International Telegraph Expedition in Alaska from 1865-1868. He was on the staff of the Smithsonian, published "Alaska and its Resources," and worked with the Coast and Geodetic Survey. He served as paleontologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, was honorary curator of the U.S. National Museum, and was part of the Harriman Alaska Expedition in 1899. Dall died March 27, 1927.

Dean of Alaskan explorations and one of the last of the disappearing class of "systematic naturalists," which included Agassiz, Baird, and Audubon, William H. Dall (1845-1927) was born in Boston to Charles Henry Appleton Dall, a Unitarian minister, and Caroline Wells (Healey), a feminist and publicist. Educated in the public school system, Dall did not go on to attend Harvard after graduating from the Boston Latin School. Instead, he pursued his interests in zoology and medicine by studying under the guidance of Agassiz, Augustus A. Gould, and Jeffries Wyman. Dall's special interest in mollusca came about quite accidentally as a result of his reading Gould's Report on the Invertebrata of Massachusetts. Dall soon left for Chicago to earn his livelihood, and there he met Robert Kennicott and William Stimpson, both members of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, where Dall attended evenings to continue his scientific studies. When Kennicott was given command of the Western Union Telegraph Expedition to Alaska in 1865, whose mission was to find a means of establishing a communications system with Europe by way of Alaska, the Bering Straits, and Asia, Dall, aged twenty, was invited along as a member of the group's scientific party. Upon Kennicott's death in 1866, Dall was placed in charge of the Scientific Corps. When the expedition was abruptly terminated by the successful laying of the Atlantic cable, Dall volunteered to stay on an extra year in order to complete the scientific project. In 1871, Dall was appointed to the United States Coast Survey (U.S.C.S.), under whose auspices he continued his studies on Alaska and the northern Pacific Coast. Dall left the U.S.C.S. in 1884 to accept the rank of paleontologist with the United States Geological Survey, a position which he held until 1925. Having forwarded fossil specimens he had collected as a youth to the Smithsonian Institution, and with the collections of the Alaskan expedition being sent there also, Dall, upon his arrival in Washington, D.C., in 1868, voluntarily began to assemble and describe the collections of mollusca and other organisms stored by the United States National Museum while working on his publication regarding Alaska. In 1880, Dall was officially appointed honorary curator at the U.S. National Museum, Division of Mollusks, a position he held until his death and without remuneration, as he could not be paid for both his work with the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. National Museum. Dall was a prolific writer. Between his earliest writings on the Alaskan expedition in 1865 as a correspondent for the Alta California and his death in 1927, Dall published more than five-hundred scientific short papers. Among his larger works, Dall's Contributions to the Tertiary Fauna of Florida, 6 volumes (1890-1903), is still considered the most important American publication on cenozoic molluscan paleontology. Dall's other writings include Alaska and its Resources (1870) and his biography, Spencer Fullerton Baird (1915). Among his honorary degrees and awards, Dall was awarded the Gold Medal by the Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia (1899), for his work on paleontology; the Honorary Doctor of Science degree, University of Pennsylvania (1904); and the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree, George Washington University (1915).