Background

Hermann Hagen was born on May 30, 1817, in Königsberg, Bavaria, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia). His father, Carl Heinrich Hagen, was professor of political economy, technology, and agriculture in the University of Königsberg. His mother was Anna Dorothea Linck. His grandfather, Carl Gottfried Hagen, had been a professor of natural history in Königsberg, and he directed the boy’s attention toward entomology.

Education

Hermann Hagen graduated from the Gymnasium in 1836 and in 1840 took his degree in medicine from the University of Königsberg. After graduation he studied in Berlin, Vienna, and Paris.

Career

Young Hagen became interested early in his career in the dragon-flies, and in 1839, with Professor Rathke, he visited Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, studying the entomological collections and libraries. Curiously enough, his thesis for his doctorate in medicine was on an entomological topic.

In 1843 he began practice as a physician and surgeon. He became prominent in local affairs, was vice-president of the city council and member of the school board; but during all of the years after his return to his old home he published almost continuously on entomological subjects, mainly upon insects of the neuropteroid series, including a study of fossil forms and those found in amber. In 1861, at the special request of the Smithsonian Institution, he wrote the Synopsis of North American Neuroptera which really started the study of these forms in the United States.

In 1867, on the invitation of Louis Agassiz, Hagen came to America to develop an entomological department of the museum of comparative zoology at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in 1870 he was appointed professor of entomology in Harvard College. His work at Cambridge was admirable. He had very few students and devoted most of his time to the building up of the museum. He refused an invitation to take charge of the great entomological collections in Berlin. In 1882 he made a transcontinental journey, visiting California, Oregon, Washington, and Montana, making large collections and many important discoveries. His personal bibliography comprised more than four hundred titles, and he was greatly esteemed by the scientific men of the United States. In September 1890 he had a stroke of paralysis but lived for three years after.

Achievements

• Hermann Hagen was known as one of the leading entomologists of the world. The work that fixed his reputation among entomologists and which proved to be one of the most useful books of the century was his Bibliotheca Entomológica which included the entomological literature of the world down to 1862. It found its way into all entomological libraries and came to be known colloquially as “the entomologists’ bible. ” Hagen received the honorary degree of Ph. D. from the University of Königsberg in 1863.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Synopsis of the Neuroptera of North America: With a List of the South American Species

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Volume 4

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Über Phryganiden-Gehäuse (German Edition)

    (Über Phryganiden-Gehäuse ist ein unveränderter, hochwerti...)

  • Bibliotheca Entomologica (German Edition)

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

Membership

Hagen was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the American Entomological Society. He he also was a founding member of the Cambridge Entomological Club.

Connections

Hermann August Hagen was married in 1851 to Johanna Maria Elise Gerhards.

Father:

Carl Heinrich Hagen

Mother:

Anna Dorothea( Linck) Hagen

Spouse:

Johanna Maria Elise (Gerhards) Hagen

Grandfather:

Carl Gottfried Hagen

References

• The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers
• American Entomologists by Mallis, Arnold (1971) Hardcover