Gabb, William More, 1839-1878

William More Gabb (1839-1878) was born on January 16, 1839, in Philadelphia. He was a paleontologist who studied at the Smithsonian Institution. In 1867, Gabb participated in a survey of Baja California. In 1873, he went to Costa Rica to perform a survey of the geology, geography, and resources in the Talamanca region. It was a three-year survey, and during that time he gathered ethnological and natural history collections for the United States National Museum. During his expedition work he contracted malaria. He died on May 30, 1878.

Smithsonian Institution Archives Field Book Project: Person : Description : rid_512_pid_EACP509

Born in Philadelphia on January 16, 1839, William More Gabb became something of a prodigy in paleontology. As a teenager, Gabb wrote to New York state geologist James Hall to express his interest in paleontology, and after graduating from high school, managed to wrangle an appointment with the New York State Museum, working on the invertebrate collections.

Returning home to Philadelphia in 1860, Gabb became a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences and began publishing at a furious pace, including his signature monograph, Synopsis of the Mollusca of the Cretaceous Formation (1861). As his reputation grew, Gabb landed a coveted spot on the California Geological Survey, and from 1862 to 1866, he took part in an intensive project that took him from the Mohave desert in the south to Washington state in the north. By the end of this period, Gabb had etablished himself as one of the nation's foremost experts in Cretaceous and Tertiary invertebrates. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1869.

In 1869, Gabb resigned his position with the Survey to travel to Santo Domingo on behalf of a New York mining company. His three year stay there resulted in an important monograph, On the Topography and Geology of Santo Domingo, published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. As his time in Santo Domingo wore down, Gabb was hired by the Costa Rican government to conduct a topographical and ethnographical survey of Costa Rica, based on the speculation that that country held vast mineral wealth and to help plan for a railway. In three years, he collected large numbers of natural historical and ethnographic specimens (now at the Smithsonian Institution), but also contracted malaria, permanently impairing his lungs. He was still working up the geological and paleontological results when he died on May 30, 1878.

From the guide to the On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica, 1875, (American Philosophical Society)