1. John Cassin was an American ornithologist from Pennsylvania.
17 Facts About John Cassin
1. 2.
John Cassin worked as curator and vice president at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and focused on the systemic classification of the academy's extensive collection of birds.
3.
John Cassin was one of the founders of the Delaware County Institute of Science and published several books describing 194 new species of birds.
4.
John Cassin was educated at the Westtown School in Westtown Township, Pennsylvania.
5.
John Cassin's great Uncle, John Cassin, was a commodore in the US Navy and served in the War of 1812.
6.
John Cassin served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and was held prisoner in the infamous Confederate Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia.
7.
John Cassin moved to Philadelphia in 1834 and became the head of a lithographing business in which many of his illustrations of birds were later printed.
8.
John Cassin served for a brief time in the Philadelphia City Council.
9.
John Cassin was a member of the Zoological Society, the American Philosophical Society and the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
10.
John Cassin worked almost exclusively at the academy, focused on research and the systematic classification of species rather than field work.
11.
John Cassin described 194 new species of birds and revised a number of families in the academy's publications.
12.
John Cassin's publications include Birds of California, with descriptions and colored engravings of fifty species; Synopsis of the Birds of North America; Ornithology of the United States Exploring Expedition; Ornithology of the Japan Expedition; Ornithology of Gillis's Astronomical Expedition to Chile; and chapters on raptorial birds and waders in Ornithology of the Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys.
13.
John Cassin co-authored Birds of North America with Spencer Fullerton Baird and George Newbold Lawrence.
14.
John Cassin helped revise the publications that arose from these surveys.
15.
John Cassin was elected vice president of the Academy of Natural Sciences in 1864.
16.
John Cassin died in 1869 of arsenic poisoning caused by his handling of bird skins preserved with arsenic.
17.
John Cassin is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.