Agassiz
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ALEXANDER (ä-gä-sē'), an American zoologist and geologist, son of J. L. R. Agassiz, born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Dec. 17, 1835. He came to the United States with his father in 1849; graduated from Harvard in 1855; and received the degree of B. S. from the Lawrence Scientific School in 1857. In 1859 he went to California as assistant on the United States Coast Survey. From 1860 to 1865 he was assistant curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard University; and, from 1866 to 1869, superintendent of the Calumet and Hecla mines, Lake Superior. On the death of his father in 1873, he was appointed curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, holding that position until he resigned in 1885. In 1900 he completed a series of deep sea explorations for the United States Government. His chief works are "List of Echinoderms" (1863); "Exploration of Lake Titicaca" (1875-1876); "Three Cruises of the Blake, a Contribution to American Thalassography" (1880); etc. He died in March, 1910. JEAN LOUIS a Swiss naturalist, born at Môtier, Swit zerland, May 28, 1807. He studied med icine and comparative anatomy in the universities of Zürich, Heidelberg, and Munich. He gave of fossil fishes, and his first great bore that title ( 1834 researches were explanation of glaciers "Studies of Glaciers" (1844). In 1846 he made a lecturing tour of States, and, in 1848, became sor of Geology at Harvard, and, in 1859, curator of the Museum Zoology. His velopment of the of natural science in ments are very numerous authority. Chief among his works written in English are "Principles of Zoölogy;" "The Structure of Animal Life"; "Scientific Results of a Journey in Brazil"; "Natural History of the Fresh- Water Fishes of Europe"; and "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States." Other important works are "Studies on the Glaciers," "The Glacial System," and "Researches on Fossil Fishes." He died at Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 14, 1873. as one of the cryptocrystalline varieties of quartz, some of the other minerals falling ing chalcedony, carnelian, onyx, hornstone, and jasper.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 praised Louis Agassiz simply as a great "authority" whose glacial researches explained the ice; that half of the judgement has held up, since the reality of past ice ages is now bedrock geology, though modern work shows many glacial cycles rather than the single deluge of ice he imagined, and ties them to orbital cycles Agassiz never suspected. What Collier's leaves out is what now dominates his reputation: his lifelong rejection of Darwinian evolution, which left him scientifically isolated by his death in 1873, and his advocacy of separate origins for human races. That second legacy has had concrete consequences. Cambridge's Agassiz School was renamed for Maria L. Baldwin in 2002, Swiss campaigners have pressed to rename the Agassizhorn, and Harvard was sued by Tamara Lanier over the 1850 daguerreotypes of the enslaved Renty and Delia that Agassiz commissioned to support his racial theories; the Massachusetts high court let her claim proceed in 2022 and the case was settled with the images leaving Harvard.
Written for this edition, 2026.