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Information on the Site and Its Authors

One of the early criticisms of my "Early Classics..." sites was that it would be difficult to keep the links to biographical information on the naturalists up to date. This has turned out to be true. Further, there are still many prominent figures for whom little information exists on the Web. Therefore, I decided to create a separate service which would both complement the original sites, and stand on its own as a biographical resource. This was accomplished by first ascertaining which of the authors in the list merited special profiling in this sense, and then pulling together relevant information from reference books, obituaries, and other sources.

The first author of this site is Professor of Library Public Services and Science Librarian at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green; more information on me (including contact information) may be obtained by clicking here. I was assisted in the compilation by the good work of two student assistants, Joshua Woleben and Carubie Rodgers, the extent of whose labors merits their listing as co-authors. I would also especially like to acknowledge the support of two Western Kentucky University Faculty Scholarship Grants in making this site possible, the help of Meagan Miles and David Hall when the site was modestly expanded in late 2006 and early 2007, and the webwork of Megan Derr to "freshen it up" in 2010.

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Copyright 2005-2011 by Charles H. Smith. All rights reserved. http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/chronob/about.htm

Abstract

Each name in the following list of naturalists is linked to a corresponding capsule "chrono-biographical" sketch of that individual prepared by the authors. Coverage extends from approximately 1950 backward in time as far as the eighteenth century; figures from all over the world are included (though there is admittedly a decided Anglo-American bias). The target subject here is biogeography, but this being a broad field there are many persons on the list who are better known as climatologists, zoologists, botanists, ecologists, oceanographers, paleontologists, etc.--in other words, who made their main reputations in cognate disciplines.

This service has been set up to support my two Early Classics in Biogeography, Distribution and Diversity Studies websites, and because of this no claims are made of having produced a list of all workers relevant to these studies (in fact, the most famous figures, such as Louis Agassiz, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, although listed below, are not covered here inasmuch as satisfactory biographical information on them is easy to find elsewhere on the Web). Note in this context that only those persons who produced works appearing in the "Early Classics...To 1950" list were considered for inclusion below, and therefore that many notable figures whose reputations largely postdate 1950 are not treated. This was simply a concession made to the limited time available to do the work.

My thanks to Western Kentucky University for providing funding that significantly contributed to the completion of this service. Also to David Hall, who collected some additional data for me in 2006. -- C. H. S.

Disciplines

Earth Sciences | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Environmental Sciences | Evolution | Geography

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