Say, Thomas, 1787-1834

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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.

Afterward, from 1817 until 1825 Say was as an explorer on several private and government-sponsored expeditions to the southeastern and western portions of the United States, or what was to become the United States. During 1817-1818 Say accompanied Scottish geologist William Maclure, the new president and benefactor of the Academy of Natural Sciences, on an expedition of the coastal islands of Georgia and Spanish Florida along with the young naturalist and scientific illustrator Titian Peale (1799-1885) and Academy Vice-President George Ord (1781-1866). Although thwarted by hostile Indians, the 1817 Florida Expedition was the first privately funded collecting endeavor of its kind and established a model for American natural history museums by observing and collecting many new species. Results of the expeditions were presented in oral reports and in publications of the newly-founded Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, edited by Say.

In 1819-20, Say served as chief zoologist on Major Stephen H. Long’s (1784-1864) expedition to the Rocky Mountains, during which he named and described many hitherto unknown species of birds, mammals, reptiles, insects and shells. Say also studied the culture of Native American tribes in the area and was particularly sympathetic to the symbiotic relationship between these indigeneous peoples and the wildlife of the region.

In 1821, Say became curator of the American Philosophical Society and then professor of natural history (including geology) at the University of Pennsylvania in 1822. The following year he joined another expedition of Major Long as zoologist and “antiquary” (paleontologist) to St. Peter’s River at the headwaters of the Mississippi. The expedition moved as far north as Lake of the Woods in Canada and across the northern portion of Lake Superior. Say collected enough insect specimens to accurately represent North America in his American Entomology, or Descriptions of the Insects of North America (3 vols, 1824-28). The first part, with illustrations by Titian Peale, Hugh Bridport, and Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846) and William Wood, was published in Philadelphia and established Say’s reputation as the preeminent American zoologist.

Say’s life took a fateful turn as he and Lesueur accompanied Maclure to visit Robert Owen’s utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana. Maclure, who was interested in social and educational reform, had visited Owen’s model factory and school in Scotland one year earlier and helped him purchase the land for the New Harmony community on the banks of the Wabash River. After the arrival of Maclure, Say and other Philadelphia scientists and educators in January 1826 on the famous “Boatload of Knowledge,” the educational program at New Harmony was organized under the aegis of the School Society over which Maclure soon gained financial control. Maclure’s plan was to make the New Harmony school an institute for scientific instruction, and he wanted Say to administer it. As a result, Say, who was completely dependent upon his patron Maclure for his livelihood, spent the remainder of his life in New Harmony, except for a trip to Mexico with Maclure in 1827-28 and a brief visit to Philadelphia. As the utopian community gradually dissolved through internal strife, Maclure transformed the school into a center for scientific research, complete with a school press and a journal entitled the Disseminator of Useful Knowledge.

In January 1827 Say married Lucy Way Sistare, a teaching apprentice at the Pestalozzian school in Philadelphia opened by Marie Duclos Fretageot in 1823. Say’s ANSP colleague, the naturalist/artist Lesueur, taught drawing at the school, and Sistare received instruction from him as well as from John James Audobon (1785-1851). She had gotten to know many naturalists through Fretageot’s school and thereby became involved in the plans of Maclure, Say, and other members of the Academy to help establish an Owenite utopian community at New Haromony, Indiana. On the way to New Harmony Sistare became acquainted with Say, thirteen years her senior, and the two married on January 4, 1827. The couple had no children of their own, although Lucy taught drawing to some of the Owenite children.

Say continued his work of describing insects and mollusks in New Harmony, completing the publication of the final volumes of his American Entomology and his American Conchology, or Descriptions of the Shells of North America Illustrated From Coloured Figures From Original Drawings Executed from Nature (Parts 1-6, New Harmony, 1830-34; Part 7, Philadelphia, 1836). His wife Lucy Way Sistare Say illustrated much of her husband’s American Conchology, rendering sixty-six of the work’s sixty-eight plates, and adding the color to individual impressions in painstaking detail.

Conditions at New Harmony as well as the isolation Say experienced there took their toll on his morale and eventually his health. Worn out by stomach, liver and intestinal problems, Say succumbed to typhoid fever and died on October 10, 1834 at the age of 46.

Thomas Say has been called the “father of American descriptive zoology.” He made numerous contributions to American science. His pioneering works on entomology and conchology established those sciences in the United States. He named approximately 1,500 new North American insects, preparing the ground for the identification of disease carriers such as the American dog tick (which carries Rocky Mountain Fever) and a mosquito species found to carry malaria. Say was the first to describe crop-damaging insects such as the chinch bug, Colorado potato beetle, peach tree borer, walkingstick, and Hessian fly, among others. Fellow entomologists praised his invertebrate descriptions. In 1840 German entomologist Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson wrote that “in brevity I see that no one excels the American Say, who published descriptions so concise that they hardly go beyond the extent of diagnosis, nevertheless, so clear that you will hardly ever find doubtful a form exhibited by him.” He also described and classified more than twenty-five mollusks that have proven to have medical significance, such as the North American freshwater mollusk Pomatiopsis lapidaria, a potential transmitter of the disease schistsomiasis, and the snail Helisoma bicarinatus that carries cattle disease.

One of Say's most innovative insights appeared in his 1818 article on fossilized shells for Benjamin Silliman’s American Journal of Science and Arts in which he suggests the use of the fossil record for dating rock strata. Perhaps most significant were his labors at establishing the independent authority of American scientists to name and describe their own flora and fauna, without sending specimens to Europe.

During his lifetime, Say was elected to membership in several scientific organizations, including the American Philosophical Society in 1817 (serving as its curator in 1821), the Société Philomatique of Paris in 1818 and the Linnean Society of London in 1830.

From the guide to the Thomas Say papers, 1819-1883, 1955, 1819-1883, (American Philosophical Society)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Audubon, John James, 1785-1851. Robert B. Haines III collection, 1793-1834. Haverford College Library
referencedIn Kobbe, Frederick William. Frederick W. Kobbe and Helen Jay De Bois genealogical research papers, [ca. 1800-1945] Campbell University, Wiggins Memorial Library
creatorOf Harris, Thaddeus William, 1795-1856. Letters to Thomas Say and others, manuscript, 1823-1835. HCL Technical Services, Harvard College Library
creatorOf Thomas Say papers, 1819-1883, 1955, 1819-1883 American Philosophical Society
referencedIn American Philosophical Society Archives, 1743-1984 American Philosophical Society
referencedIn Roger D. Branigin-Kenneth Dale Owen Collection, 1825-1896, (bulk 1825-1859) Working Men's Institute of New Harmony, Indiana
creatorOf Say, Thomas, 1787-1834. Papers, 1819-1883. American Philosophical Society Library
creatorOf Stephens, T. C. (Thomas Calderwood), 1876-1948. Iowa ornithological collection, 1819-2010. State Historical Society of Iowa, Library
referencedIn Kobbé, Frederick William. Frederick W. Kobbe and Helen Jay De Bois genealogical research papers, [ca. 1800-1945] New York Public Library System, NYPL
referencedIn New Harmony (Ind.). Collection, 1814-1884. Indiana Historical Society Library
referencedIn New Harmony Manuscripts, 1812-1871 Working Men's Institute of New Harmony, Indiana
referencedIn Frederick W. Kobbé and Helen Jay De Bois genealogical research papers, 1817-1944 New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division
referencedIn Short, Charles Wilkins, 1794-1863. Charles Wilkins Short : papers, 1811-1869. The Filson Historical Society
referencedIn Hays, Isaac, 1796-1879. Papers, ca. 1820s-1879. American Philosophical Society Library
referencedIn Bonaparte, Charles Lucian, 1803-1857. Correspondence, 1824-1855, from American scientists. American Philosophical Society Library
referencedIn New Harmony Manuscripts, 1812-1871 Working Men's Institute of New Harmony, Indiana
referencedIn William Maclure letters; 1796-1848, 1796-1848 American Philosophical Society
referencedIn Lesueur, Charles Alexandre, 1778-1846. Charles Alexandre Lesueur Collection of Works of Art on Paper, ca. 1800-1846. Purdue University Library
referencedIn Isaac and I. Minis Hays papers, Circa 1820-1925 American Philosophical Society
referencedIn American Philosophical Society Archives. Record Group IIc, 1826-1836 American Philosophical Society
creatorOf Say, Thomas, 1787-1834. Article Conchology by Thomas Say, published in Nicholson's Encyclopedia, 3d edition, Philadelphia, 1819. American Museum of Natural History
creatorOf Say, Thomas, 1787-1834. Thomas Say ornithological papers, 1819-2010. Iowa State Historical Society
creatorOf Thomas Say letters, 1818-1830 New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division
referencedIn Pare, William, 1819-1855 Senate House Library (University of London)
creatorOf Bushnell, David I. (David Ives), 1875-1941. Papers, 1797-1941 1917-1941. William & Mary Libraries
referencedIn Maclure, William, 1763-1840. Letters ; papers, 1796-1848. American Philosophical Society Library
referencedIn Maurice Hugh Farrier Papers, 1876-1991 North Carolina State University. Special Collections Research Center
creatorOf Grant British Library
referencedIn American Philosophical Society Library. Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection. 1668-1983. American Philosophical Society
referencedIn Sparks, Jared, 1789-1866. Jared Sparks collection of American manuscripts, 1582-1843 Houghton Library
referencedIn Gray, Asa, 1810-1888. Papers, 1840-1859 Library of Congress. Manuscript Division
referencedIn Samuel George Morton Papers, 1819-1850 American Philosophical Society
creatorOf David Ives Bushnell, Jr. Papers, 1797-1941 North Carolina State University. Special Collections Research Center
referencedIn Papers of Stephen Elliot 1808-1828 Gray Herbarium Library
referencedIn Morton, Samuel George, 1799-1851. Papers, 1819-1850. American Philosophical Society Library
referencedIn Storer, Abby M. Letter to Samuel H. Scudder, 1891. Harvard University, Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology
creatorOf Correspondence, 1824-1855, from American scientists, 1824-1855 American Philosophical Society
referencedIn Museum of Comparative Zoology collection of historical manuscripts, 1736-1908 (inclusive), 1810-1870 (bulk). Harvard University, Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
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associatedWith American Philosophical Society corporateBody
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associatedWith Bonaparte, Charles Lucian, 1803-1857. person
associatedWith Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878 person
associatedWith Bushnell, Belle Johnston, b. 1859 person
associatedWith Bushnell, David I. (David Ives), 1875-1941. person
associatedWith Capers, Charles William person
associatedWith Carson, Marian S., person
associatedWith Carson, Marian S., person
associatedWith Carson, Marian S., collector. person
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associatedWith Farrier, Maurice H. person
associatedWith Férussac, André-Etienne-Just-Pascal-Joseph-Francois d'Audebard, family
associatedWith Férussac, André-Etienne-Just-Pascal-Joseph-François d'Audebard, baron de, 1786-1836. person
associatedWith Fitch, John person
associatedWith Genth, F. A., (Frederick Augustus), 1820-1893 person
associatedWith Gilliams, Jacob person
associatedWith Gilliams, Jacob person
associatedWith Gilliams, Jacob. person
associatedWith Gray, Arthur F. person
associatedWith Gray, Asa, 1810-1888. person
associatedWith Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872 person
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associatedWith Harding, Warren G. person
associatedWith Hare, Robert, 1781-1858 person
associatedWith Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841 person
associatedWith Harris, Thaddeus William, 1795-1856. person
associatedWith Hays, I. Minis, (Isaac Minis), 1847-1925 person
associatedWith Hays, Isaac, 1796-1879. person
correspondedWith Henry, Joseph, 1797-1878 person
associatedWith James, Mary Effie Cameron person
associatedWith Keating, William Hypolitus, 1799-1840 person
associatedWith Kobbe, Frederick William. person
associatedWith Kobbé, Frederick William person
associatedWith Kurz, Rudolph Friedrich, 1818-1871 person
associatedWith Lea, Isaac, 1792-1886 person
associatedWith Le Conte, John L. (John Lawrence), 1825-1883 person
associatedWith Lesueur, Charles Alexandre, 1778-1846. person
associatedWith Long, Stephen Harriman, 1784-1864 person
associatedWith Maclure, William, 1763-1840. person
associatedWith Morton, Samuel George, 1799-1851. person
associatedWith Newcomb, Simon person
associatedWith New Harmony (Ind.) corporateBody
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correspondedWith New Harmony (Ind.) Working Men's Institute. corporateBody
associatedWith New Harmony (Ind.) Working Men's Institute. corporateBody
associatedWith Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727 person
associatedWith Nicholson, William, 1753-1815. person
associatedWith Nuttall, Thomas, 1786-1859. person
associatedWith Ord, George, 1781-1866. person
associatedWith Owen family family
associatedWith Pare, William, 1805-1873 person
associatedWith Peter, Robert, 1805-1894 person
associatedWith Poinsett, Joel Roberts, 1779-1851 person
associatedWith Rafinesque, C. S., (Constantine Samuel ), 1783-1840 person
associatedWith Rittenhouse, David, 1732-1796 person
associatedWith Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813 person
spouseOf Say, Lucy Way Sistaire, 1801-1886. person
associatedWith Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864 person
associatedWith Seybert, Adam, 1773-1825 person
associatedWith Short, Charles Wilkins, 1794-1863. person
associatedWith Sparks, Jared, 1789-1866 person
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associatedWith Stevens, Henry person
associatedWith Storer, Abby M. person
associatedWith Sully, Thomas, 1783-1872 person
associatedWith Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief, 1768-1813 person
associatedWith Thomson, Charles, 1729-1824 person
associatedWith Van Rensselaer, Jeremiah, 1740-1810 person
associatedWith Waterton, Charles, 1782-1865 person
associatedWith Wayne, Anthony person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Cantebr, Cambridgeshire
All Saints, Cambridgeshire
United States
Subject
Birds
Birds
Entomology
Indians of North America
Land and Speculation
Mollusks
Natural history
Oregon
Ornithology
Science and technology
Surveying and Maps
Washington (D.C.)
Zoological specimens
Zoology
Occupation
Activity

Person

Birth 1787-06-27

Death 1834-10-10

Male

Americans

French,

English

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