33 Facts About Constantine Rafinesque

Constantine Rafinesque traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimately settling in Ohio in 1815, where he made notable contributions to botany, zoology, and the study of prehistoric earthworks in North America.

Constantine Rafinesque contributed to the study of ancient Mesoamerican linguistics, in addition to work he had already completed in Europe.

Constantine Rafinesque was an autodidact, who excelled in various fields of knowledge, as a zoologist, botanist, writer and polyglot.

Constantine Rafinesque wrote prolifically on such diverse topics as anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics, but was honored in none of these fields during his lifetime.

Constantine Rafinesque spent his youth in Marseilles, and was mostly self-educated; he never attended university.

Related searches

In 1802, at the age of 19, Constantine Rafinesque sailed to Philadelphia in the United States with his younger brother.

In 1805, Constantine Rafinesque returned to Europe with his collection of botanical specimens, and settled in Palermo, Sicily, where he learned Italian.

Constantine Rafinesque became so successful in trade that he retired by age 25 and devoted his time entirely to natural history.

Constantine Rafinesque was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1808.

Audubon, although enjoying Constantine Rafinesque's company, took advantage of him in practical jokes involving fantastic, made-up species.

In 1819, Constantine Rafinesque became professor of botany at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he gave private lessons in French, Italian, and Spanish.

Constantine Rafinesque was loosely associated with John D Clifford, a merchant who was interested in the ancient earthworks that remained throughout the Ohio Valley.

Constantine Rafinesque was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1820.

Constantine Rafinesque started recording all the new species of plants and animals he encountered in travels throughout the state.

Constantine Rafinesque was considered an erratic student of higher plants.

Constantine Rafinesque traveled and lectured in various places, and endeavored to establish a magazine and a botanic garden, but without success.

Constantine Rafinesque moved to Philadelphia, a center of publishing and research, without employment.

Constantine Rafinesque published The Atlantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge, a Cyclopædic Journal and Review, of which only eight issues were printed .

Constantine Rafinesque gave public lectures and continued publishing, mostly at his own expense.

Constantine Rafinesque was buried in a plot in what is Ronaldson's Cemetery.

Constantine Rafinesque applied to join the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but was twice turned down by Thomas Jefferson.

Constantine Rafinesque was one of the first to use the term "evolution" in the context of biological speciation.

Constantine Rafinesque held that species are not fixed; they gradually change through time.

In 1836, Constantine Rafinesque published his first volume of The American Nations.

Constantine Rafinesque claimed he had obtained wooden tablets engraved and painted with indigenous pictographs, together with a transcription in the Lenape language.

Related searches

Constantine Rafinesque claimed the original tablets and transcription were later lost, leaving his notes and transcribed copy as the only record of evidence.

Constantine Rafinesque made a notable contribution to North American prehistory with his studies of ancient earthworks of the Adena and Hopewell cultures, especially in the Ohio Valley.

Constantine Rafinesque was the first to identify these as the "Ancient Monuments of America".

Constantine Rafinesque listed more than 500 such archaeological sites in Ohio and Kentucky.

Constantine Rafinesque never excavated; rather, he recorded the sites visited by careful measurements, sketches, and written descriptions.

Constantine Rafinesque designated as Taino, the ancient language of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

Constantine Rafinesque explained that its bar-and-dot symbols represent fives and ones, respectively.

Constantine Rafinesque's style was offputting to the emerging professionalization of science and achievements were controversial at the time and by historians ever since.