Louis Agassiz , to Monsieur with Love
By Bree D . Harvey , Director of Education & Visitor Services
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of naturalist and educator Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz . Born the son of a Protestant clergyman in Switzerland , Louis Agassiz studied medicine and natural history at universities in Europe . Upon graduation he produced a colossal work on fossil fishes — identifying and illustrating more than 1,200 species at a time when few fossil fish had even been named . In 1840 , after studying the movement of the Aar glacier in Switzerland , he published what is considered his most important scientific work , Études sur les glaciers ( Studies of Glaciers ). This introduced his idea of the “ Ice Age ,” a period when much of the globe was enveloped with thick sheets of ice . By the time he immigrated to America in 1846 , he was already a well-known naturalist .
Upon arriving in this country Agassiz was invited to Boston to deliver a series of scientific lectures at the Lowell Institute . The following year he accepted a newly created professorship in natural history at Harvard ’ s Lawrence Scientific School . Agassiz modernized the study of the natural world at Harvard by encouraging his students to use the outdoors as their scientific laboratory and to rely on first-hand observation when doing their research rather than on rote memorization . His interest in expanding Harvard ’ s collection of zoological specimens led to his founding the Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1859 . Agassiz donated his personal collection of specimen fish , insects , and other species gathered from travels to the museum ’ s collection .
In 1850 Agassiz married Elizabeth Cary , the sister-in-law of Cornelius Felton , the Greek scholar who later became Harvard president . Like her husband , Elizabeth Agassiz was
deeply interested in education . Between 1856 and 1865 , the couple ran a small school for girls , known as the Agassiz School , in their Cambridge home . Agassiz taught the school ’ s science courses and recruited several of his Harvard colleagues to offer lessons in other subjects .
Agassiz continued his studies in zoology , taking part in maritime surveys along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and participating in a two-year expedition to Brazil . He died in December 1873 and was buried at Mount Auburn in the Cary family lot with members of his wife ’ s family . A 2,500-pound boulder from the Aar Glacier near the site of his geological studies — a gift by the Republic of Switzerland — was placed at his grave as his monument . After her husband ’ s death , Elizabeth Agassiz championed the cause of education for young women . Her efforts eventually led to the founding of Radcliffe College .
( Above , right ) A boulder from his native Switzerland marks the Mount Auburn grave of Louis Agassiz ( 1807-1873 ) in the Bellwort Path family lot of his wife Elizabeth Cary Agassiz , also buried there . Photo by Jennifer Johnston .
( Above ) Louis Agassiz in his library , 1861 ( from Life , Letters , and Works of Louis Agassiz , MacMillan and Co ., New York , 1896 ).
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