The Common Spiders of the United States - Primary Source Edition
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
(The Structure and Habits of Spiders is an unchanged, high...)
The Structure and Habits of Spiders is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1878. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres.As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature.Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.
Life on the Seashore or Animals of our Coasts and Bays: No. 1
(Life on the Seashore or Animals of our Coasts and Bays - ...)
Life on the Seashore or Animals of our Coasts and Bays - No. 1 is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1880. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.
(Beautiful Ferns by Daniel Cady Eaton
ORIGINAL WATER-COLO...)
Beautiful Ferns by Daniel Cady Eaton
ORIGINAL WATER-COLOR DRAWINGS AFTER NATURE, By C. E. FAXON and J. H. EMERTON.
Descriptive Text by Daniel Cady Eaton, PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN YALE COLLEGE.
American Maiden-Hair
Ostrich-Fern
Alpine Beech-Fern
Fragrant Wood-Fern
Goldie’s Wood-Fern
Webby Lip-Fern
Eaton’s Lip-Fern
Male Fern
Trifoliate Cliff-Brake
Clayton’s Cliff-Brake
Slender Cliff-Brake
Evergreen Wood-Fern
Walking-Leaf
Pinnatifid Spleenwort
Sensitive Fern
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
(This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfec...)
This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. From The American Naturalist, February, 1871.
James Henry Emerton was an American arachnologist and illustrator.
Background
He was third of the four children, all sons, of James and Martha Mosely (West) Emerton. His father, a son and grandson of Salem sea captains, became an apothecary's apprentice at seventeen and at twenty-two purchased an apothecary store in Salem, which he operated successfully between 1839 and 1875, serving also as member of the Salem school committee and common council. Emerton's two older brothers died in infancy. His younger brother, Ephraim became professor of church history at Harvard.
Education
Emerton's formal education ended with the public schools of Salem, but he remained a student always.
With his father's assistant, he roamed the seashore and countryside, collecting natural-history specimens which were taken later for study to the Essex Institute in Salem.
Here, by the time he was fifteen years of age, he was a frequent visitor, and as a student in the Museum, came under the influence of such well-known naturalists as Alpheus S. Packard, Frederic W. Putnam, John Robinson, and Caleb Cook. These men recognized his ability and encouraged him to pursue his studies of nature.
In 1875 when he went to Europe to study at Leipzig (October 1875 - April 1876) and at Jena (May-July 1876) he took with him over 300 species of New England spiders and spent much time visiting the leading European arachnologists and making comparative studies of European and New England forms.
Career
About 1885 he established his permanent residence in Boston, where, in addition to other interests, he made many papier-mache models for medical schools. For over forty years prior to his death, he enjoyed an inherited annuity which relieved him from the necessity of earning a living and made is possible for him to withdraw from the field of commercial art, and to divert more of his time to his first interest, the taxonomy and habits of spiders.
He was able, also, to travel and to sojourn annually at Gloucester, Massachussets, where as a member of the summer art colony, he produced and exhibited many water-color sketches of marine subjects. He died without issue. Emerton took no lessons in art, the skill which he developed in drawing, painting, and modeling being the result of his own initiative.
In 1868, he advertised himself in the American Naturalist as a "zoological and botanical draughtsman" prepared to execute drawings on paper or wood, with special reference given to the delineation of insects.
As a professional artist he prepared many of the illustrations in Packard's Guide to the Study of Insects, the forty quarto plates in Botany (1871) by Sereno Watson and Daniel C. Eaton in the Geological Explorations of the Fortieth Parallel series, and the beautiful colored plates of Eaton's The Ferns of North America (vol. I, 1879).
His line drawings and color work appear also in Packard's A Monograph of the Geometrid Moths (1876), Charles S. Minot's A Laboratory Text-Book of Embryology (1908), Addison E. Verrill's Report upon the Invertebrate Animals of Vineyard Sound and Adjacent Waters (1873), Samuel H. Scudder's The Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada (3 vols. , 1889), George W. Peckham's papers on spiders, and in many publications of the United States Fish Commission. He also prepared the illustrations for the Peckhams' On the Instincts and Habits of the Solitary Wasps (1898) and Wasps, Social and Solitary (1905).
In 1870 he was elected to the Boston Society of Natural History and served as its assistant curator during 1873-74, specializing on spider studies.
During the years 1877-79 he gave lectures on zo"logy and spiders at the School of Biology in Salem and was curator of the museum of the Peabody Academy of Sciences.
From 1880 to 1882 he was assistant to Prof A. E. Verrill at Yale University. It was during this period that he made the famous papier-mache models of the giant squid (37 feet long) and the octopus (15 feet in diameter), samples of which are in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, and in the National Museum in Washington. For these models, he was awarded a certificate at the International Fisheries Congress, London, 1882.
In 1893, he went to the West Indies with Alexander Agassiz and made water-color sketches of marine subjects. He traveled and collected in the California mountains (1905), the Canadian Rockies (1914), and in the Hudson Bay region (1920), but his favorite collecting grounds remained in New England, throughout which he collected spiders to within several weeks of his death.
While the fidelity to detail, the artistic finish, and the naturalness of his drawings added greatly to the worth of the publications of others, Emerton's reputation as a scientist is more definitely based upon his work on the taxonomy and habits of spiders, of which he described about 350 new species, redescribed many old species, and made over 2, 000 detailed drawings.
His series of papers on New England spiders, appearing in the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (1882 - 1915) firmly established his reputation as an arachnologist. By 1881 his collection of spiders is said to have exceeded 10, 000 specimens, and to these he added constantly.
At his death, he willed his entire collection to his close friend, Nathan Banks, curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, who in turn presented it to the Museum after separating a partial duplicate set which he gave to the Boston Society of Natural History.
An excellent bibliography of sixty papers by Emerton was published by Banks.
Achievements
His principal interest and work was on the taxonomy and distribution of the spiders of New England and Canada. His method of sifting leaves, moss and detritus brought to light great numbers of the smaller forms. At first he sent these to O. P. Cambridge in England, who described them; later he began his famous series of New England Spiders, publishing the Theridiidae in 1882.
The plates in these papers were especially valuable; those in the second part (Epeiridae) containing some of his finest drawings. It is these illustrations that give the characteristic appearance of the parts which have given to Emerton much of his importance as an arachnologist. Cambridge, in reviewing Hentz's Spiders of the United States (Nature, 1876) refers to Emexton's two plates as follows:-"In point of accurate detail and artistic finish these figures are immeasurably in advance of those engraved from Hentz's drawings. "
The series on New England spiders was followed by four supplements, two papers on Canadian spiders and numerous smaller articles, describing in all over 350 species, always with useful illustrations. No other writer has so thoroughly figured his species, old as well as new. In several papers he traced the distribution of certain northern spiders.
Several of his early articles dealt with the habits of spiders and, even to the last, he loved to watch each autumn for the flying spiders. He gave to the Museum of Comparative Zoology the first set of the types of his descriptions.
In 1868, he advertised himself in the American Naturalist as a "zoological and botanical draughtsman" prepared to execute drawings on paper or wood, with special reference given to the delineation of insects.
Personality
In spite of his early frailness, Emerton developed into an active man of small stature, enjoying good health and retaining an active interest in his chosen field until his death.
Interests
Aside from being a naturalist he was an artist for the sake of art. He painted hundreds of water colors, often depicting the sea, the shore, or ships. For several seasons this was done at Ipswich, and in later years he went regularly in July to Gloucester for painting. He frequently exhibited before art societies, and lived for many years in an artist's studio apartment.
Connections
He married, December 25, 1884, at New Haven, Connecticut, Mary A. Hills (d. 1898), whose wedding gown was of white silk heavily embroidered with Emerton's drawings of New England spiders.
where he was appointed assistant to Professor A. E. Verrill. He made a host of drawings for Verrill
and later
about 1880
about 1880
N. Y.
and prepared the famous models of the great squid and octopus now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge and in the National Museum of Natural History at Washington. For these models he was awarded a medal with an elaborately engraved certificate at the International Fisheries Congress in London in 1882.
and prepared the famous models of the great squid and octopus now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge and in the National Museum of Natural History at Washington. For these models he was awarded a medal with an elaborately engraved certificate at the International Fisheries Congress in London in 1882.
