14 Facts About Jacob Bigelow

Jacob Bigelow was an American physician, botanist and botanical illustrator.

Jacob Bigelow was architect of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, husband to Mary Scollay, and the father of physician Henry Jacob Bigelow.

Jacob Bigelow was the son of Jacob Bigelow, a Congregational minister, and Elizabeth Bigelow.

In 1811 Jacob Bigelow returned to Boston and established a successful medical practice that would make him one of the most respected local doctors for the next 60 years.

Later, Jacob Bigelow expanded his botanic surveys into New Hampshire and Vermont.

Jacob Bigelow was appointed professor of materia medica at the Harvard Medical School in 1815 and held the post until 1855.

Jacob Bigelow was an important contributor to the first American pharmacopoeia in 1820.

Jacob Bigelow became interested in mechanics and was appointed Rumford Professor at Harvard College, teaching applied science from 1816 to 1827.

Jacob Bigelow is credited with promoting the word "technology" and in 1829 he published a treatise on mechanics and non-biological sciences, Elements of Technology.

Jacob Bigelow was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 67 years and served as president of the organization from 1847 to 1863.

Jacob Bigelow came up with the idea for Mount Auburn Cemetery as early as 1825, though a site was not acquired until five years later.

Jacob Bigelow was concerned about the unhealthiness of burials under churches as well as the possibility of running out of space.

Jacob Bigelow died on January 10,1879, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Jacob Bigelow's deprecations helped form a new conceptual nucleus around which medical orthodoxy could begin to redefine itself.