1. Robert Kennicott was an American naturalist and herpetologist.
24 Facts About Robert Kennicott
1. 2.
Robert Kennicott's father schooled him at home and convinced naturalist Jared Potter Kirtland to take him as an understudy.
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Soon, Robert Kennicott was providing specimens for the Smithsonian Institution via assistant secretary Spencer Fullerton Baird.
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Robert Kennicott advocated for the study and protection of native prairie animals in an era when farmers sought to eradicate them.
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Robert Kennicott teamed with Northwestern University to found a natural history museum in 1857, then founded the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
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Robert Kennicott joined the Megatherium Club and studied specimens in Hudson Bay.
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Robert Kennicott died on the expedition and was memorialized as the namesake of Alaska's Robert Kennicott Glacier.
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Robert Kennicott was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 13,1835.
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Robert Kennicott was a sickly child and attempted to improve his overall health by spending much time outdoors.
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Robert Kennicott did not attend school regularly, but his father ensured that he received an education at home.
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Under the tutelage of his father, Robert Kennicott learned to patiently observe nature and began a collection of specimens.
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Robert Kennicott wintered with Kirtland in East Rockport, Ohio.
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The first new animal species identified by Robert Kennicott was a Northern Illinois snake, which he sent to Baird.
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Robert Kennicott published a three-part paper from 1856 to 1858 entitled "The Quadrupeds of Illinois, Injurious and Beneficial to the Farmer".
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Later that year, Robert Kennicott co-founded the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
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Robert Kennicott became popular with Hudson's Bay Company fur traders in the area and encouraged them to collect and send natural history specimens and First Nations artifacts to the Smithsonian.
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Robert Kennicott returned to Washington at the end of 1862.
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Robert Kennicott considered joining the Union Army in the Civil War, but was convinced otherwise, sending a substitute.
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Robert Kennicott returned to Illinois in 1863 to tend to his ailing father, who died later that year.
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Robert Kennicott collected snake specimens including with his specimen collecting first cousin Helen L Teunisson.
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Robert Kennicott subsequently named the subspecies Carphophis amoenus helenae in her honor.
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The party moved north to Vancouver where Robert Kennicott suffered a period of ill health.
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Robert Kennicott died in May 1866 while traveling up the Yukon River.
24.
Robert Kennicott's body was returned to his family's home in Illinois, enclosed in a metal canister and shipped via Russia and Japan rather than sent back on undeveloped trails through Canada.