The Races of Man, and Their Geographical Distribution
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Charles Pickering was an American physician and naturalist.
Background
He was born on November 10, 1805 in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. His father, Timothy Pickering, Jr. , who was a Harvard graduate and for a time a midshipman in the navy, died in 1807, and Charles was brought up on a farm in Salem, Massachussets, under the guidance of his mother, Lurena (Cole), and his distinguished grandfather, Col. Timothy Pickering.
From boyhood he had a keen interest in natural sciences and in his youth made botanical excursions into the White Mountains.
Education
He entered Harvard College with the class of 1823 but transferred to the medical department without graduating and was graduated M. D. in 1826. In 1849 he was granted the degree of A. B. as of the class of 1823.
Career
In 1827 he settled in Philadelphia where, in addition to practising medicine, he began active work with the Academy of Natural Sciences of which he was already a corresponding member. For ten years he diligently used the excellent resources of the Academy to improve his knowledge; he was active on the zoological and botanical committees, and held the offices of librarian (1828 - 33) and curator (1833 - 37).
Pickering's ability and attainments were recognized in his appointment to the post of chief zoologist of the United States Exploring Expedition which sailed to the South Seas in 1838 under the command of Lieut. Charles Wilkes. During the voyage, Pickering gave special attention to anthropology and to the geographical distribution of plants and animals, subjects which held his interest for the rest of his life.
As a result of studies made on the voyage and on a visit to the East in 1843, he published his first important work, Races of Men and Their Geographical Distribution (1848), issued as the ninth volume of the report of the United States Exploring Expedition. The fifteenth volume of the same report was a treatise by Pickering entitled The Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants (1854), which was later supplemented by Plants in Their Wild State (1876), published by the Naturalist's Agency in Salem.
After his voyage to the South Seas, Pickering made his home in Boston. The last sixteen years of his life he devoted to painstaking research, the results of which are given in his monumental publication, The Chronological History of Plants: Man's Record of His Own Existence Illustrated through Their Names, Uses and Companionship. He died in 1878.