George Washington Tryon, Jr. was an American malacologist who worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
Background
George Washington Tryon was born on May 20, 1838 in Philadelphia. He was the eldest son of Edward K. and Adeline (Savidt) Tryon. He was named for his grandfather, a gunsmith.
Tryon began when he was seven years old to collect natural history specimens, especially shells of mollusks, which were favorites from the start. Orderliness was one of the child's notable mental qualities and even before his undeveloped mind could grasp the meaning of taxonomy he arranged his specimens according to an original system.
Education
After passing through several private schools, he entered the Friends' Central School in 1850, completing a three years' course in June 1853. Soon afterward he studied French, German, and music with private tutors, thus completing his formal education.
Career
Edward K. Tryon had carried on successfully the well-established business of manufacturing and selling firearms and sportsman's accoutrements which he had inherited from his father, and in due course his son succeeded him.
The younger George Washington Tryon, however, retired from business about 1868 with a modest sum, sufficient in his estimation to justify unrestrained pursuit of science and letters.
In 1859, at the age of twenty-one, he was elected a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and from that time until his death in 1888 he was active in promoting its welfare. Largely through his efforts a new building was erected.
In 1866 the conchological section of the Academy was formed and under its auspices large collections were gathered, including Tryon's own private collection which numbered more than 10, 000 species. At the time of his death, the section had one of the largest and most complete collections of Mollusca in the world.
Tryon was a curator of the Academy from 1869 to 1876 and conservator of the conchological section from 1875 until his death.
His first paper on conchology, "On the Mollusca of Harper's Ferry, Virginia, " was presented in 1861 (Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 2 ser. V, 1862), and subsequently more than seventy papers on land, freshwater, and marine mollusks came from his pen.
Among his contributions were A Monograph of the Terrestrial Mollusca Inhabiting the United States (1866); A Monograph of the Freshwater Univalve Mollusca of the United States (In Continuation of Prof. S. S. Haldeman's Work . ) , with a preface dated 1870; Part IV, "Strepomatidae" (1873), of W. G. Binney's Land and Fresh Water Shells of North America (4 vols. , 1865 - 73); and Structural and Systematic Conchology (3 vols. , 1882 - 84). He also edited and published the American Journal of Conchology from 1865 to 1872.
His chief work, however, was his Manual of Conchology, Structural and Systematic, with Illustrations of the Species, in which it was designed to describe and figure all of the living species of the Mollusca known to science. The first volume appeared in 1879. Of the first series on the marine shells, nine volumes had been completed and of the second series, the land shells, three volumes had been issued at the time of his death. Fortunately for the science of malacology, the work was continued under Dr. Henry A. Pilsbry.
He twice visited Europe, in 1874 and 1877, publishing an account of the earlier trip in The Amateur Abroad (1875).
He died on February 5, 1888 in Philadelphia.
Religion
He attended the services of the Unitarian Church of Philadelphia.
Membership
He was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
He was a member of the Society of Friends for a number of years.
Personality
Tryon was a bachelor, of a quiet, frank, and unpretentious disposition.