Say, Thomas, 1787-1834

Thomas Say (1787-1834) was a naturalist, entomologist, conchologist and explorer. The son of physician-apothecary Bejamin Say and his wife Ann Bonsall, granddaughter of the botanist John Bartram (1699-1777), Say was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 27, 1787. His mother died when he was six. Say’s connections with his great-uncle naturalist William Bartram (1739-1823), Bartram’s friend and neighbor the ornithologist Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) and Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827), whose museum in the State House contained important shell and insect collections, inspired the young Say to study natural history. He was an “indifferent” student at the Westtown (Friends) Boarding School, where he studied for three years. Say’s father discouraged him from the pursuit of natural history, trying to interest him instead in the family apothecary business. Both his grandfather Thomas and his father Benjamin were physician-apothecaries who had founded hospitals, and from 1802-1812, Thomas helped his father in the apothecary shop and at his father’s suggestion studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania medical school, probably taking courses with Dr. Say’s colleagues Caspar Wistar (1761-1818) and Benjamin Rush (1745-1813).

Sometime around 1812 Say entered into partnership with apothecary John Speakman; however, the poor business acumen soon caused the enterprise to fail. In the meantime, in 1812, Say and six friends founded the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) for “the advancement and diffusion of useful, liberal, human knowledge.” After being named curator of the new institution and editor of its Journal, Say dedicated himself exclusively to the study of natural history, abandoning his unsuccessful career as an apothecary. After his father’s death, Say lived frugally, sleeping at the Academy, tending its small museum, studying his own collection. In the fall of 1814 Say, a member of a family of “fighting Quakers,” enlisted as a dragoon in the First Troop of the Philadelphia City Cavalry in the War of 1812 and was stationed briefly at Mount Bull at the head of the Chesapeake Bay to monitor enemy troop movements.

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