Background
Augustus Addison Gould was the son of Nathaniel Duren Gould and his wife, Sally Prichard. He was born on April 23, 1805, in New Ipswich, New Hampshire. His father was originally a farmer but later became well-known as a conductor and teacher of music.
Education
The boy’s early years were largely spent in helping till the farm, only a small part of his time being available for school attendance.
At the age of sixteen, however, Augustus Addison Gould was able to enter Harvard College from which he graduated in 1825. His college life was a period of struggle against poverty, but it was in these years that he developed a taste for natural history, botany first attracting his attention.
Following his graduation from Harvard, he spent a year as a private tutor in Maryland. He then returned to Boston, began the study of medicine, was an intern in the Massachusetts General Hospital, and in 1830, received the degree of M. D. from the Harvard Medical School.
Career
With the exception of Thomas Say, the father of American conchology, perhaps no one had greater influence in developing the study of that science. From 1833 until his death, Gould was a constant contributor to the scientific journals of his time, principally upon molluscan topics, but also on insects, Crustacea, and general zoology.
With Louis Agassiz, he was a joint author of the Principles of Zoology, published in 1848.
In The Terrestrial Air-Breathing Mollusks of the United States, and the Adjacent Territories of North America (1851 - 78) by Amos Binney, Volumes I and II of which Gould edited, he performed a vast service to students of American land shells, introducing such subjects as principles of classification, geographic distribution of genera and species, geological relationships, and anatomical structures.
He also collaborated with Frederic Kidder and others in preparing The History of New Ipswich (1852).
For several years, Gould was the president of the Boston Society of Natural History, an original member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of many others at home and abroad.
He died of Asiatic cholera, at the age of sixty-one years.
Views
Quotations:
"Every art and science has a language of technical terms peculiar to itself. With those terms every student must make himself familiarly acquainted at the outset; and, first of all, he will desire to know the names of the objects about which he is to be engaged. "
Personality
Personally, Gould was of genial disposition, easily making friends and holding them. Those who had the privilege of meeting him in his home, surrounded by his family, were greatly impressed by his kindliness and generous impulses.
Connections
Gould's wife, whom he married on November 25, 1833, was Harriet Cushing Sheafe, daughter of Henry and Lucy (Cushing) Sheafe.