Background

Theodore Gill was born on March 21, 1837, in New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of James Darrell Gill and Elizabeth Vosburgh Gill, who died when the boy was nine.

Education

His youthful interest in the Fulton Fish Market led Gill to a life’s work in fishes and other animals despite the preference of his father for his son to become a minister. Visits to the market and interest in natural history continued even after Gill had begun studying law, and a scholarship from the Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia enabled him to continue his preferred interests. The Columbian College (now George Washington University) recognized his merit by awarding him the Master of Arts in 1865, Doctor of Medicine in 1866, Ph.D. in 1870, and Doctor of Law in 1895.

Career

Through William Stimpson Gill was introduced to Spencer F. Baird, who arranged for the Smithsonian Institution to publish Gill’s report on the fishes of New York when he was only nineteen. Almost his only fieldwork was an expedition to the West Indies in 1858, when he made collections especially of the freshwater fishes of Trinidad.

Gill became librarian of the Smithsonian Institution in 1862. When the books were given to the Library of Congress in 1866, he went with them as assistant librarian until 1874. From 1860 he held various appointments at Columbian College (now George Washington University), including that of professor of zoology from 1884 to 1910.

Gill lived and studied in cluttered offices in the Smithsonian throughout most of his scientific career. One of Baird’s close-knit coterie in the United States Fish Commission, he was an outstanding taxonomist and synthesizer of scientific literature. His classifications of fishes, based primarily on skeletal structure, were especially valuable at the family and order levels and formed a major basis for the classification adopted and promulgated by David Starr Jordan. Many of Gill’s papers were brief and succinct analyses of the genera of fishes, group by group. He was less keen in the recognition and description of fish species. His publications on the habits and life histories of fishes brought together the scattered observations of many workers. His taxonomic studies on birds and on mollusks have been generally superseded.

Achievements

• Theodore Gill was a prominent ichthyologist and zoologist. He is famous for cataloguing mammals, fishes and mollusks most particularly although maintaining proficiency in other orders of animals.

Works

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  • Arrangement of the Families of Mollusks 1871
  • Arrangement of the Families of Mammals 1872
  • Catalogue Of The Fishes Of The East Coast Of North America 1875
  • Bibliography of the Fishes of the Pacific Coast of the United States to the End of 1879 1882

Membership

Gill was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, was a fellow and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of many other scientific societies, and a founder of the Cosmos Club.

Personality

Gill was unusually generous with advice and knowledge to colleagues and visitors at the Smithsonian Institution.

Connections

Father:

James Darrell Gill

Mother:

Elizabeth Vosburgh Gill

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography