Background
Pierre Jean Édouard Desor was born on February 13, 1811 in Friedrichsdorf, Germany. His father was Jean Desor, a manufacturer. Though his family lived in Germany, they spoke French as their first language.
A photo of Desor.
Black-and-white reproduction of an oil painting showing Louis Agassiz (seated) and Pierre Jean Édouard Desor (standing).
A photo of Desor.
geologist naturalist scientist
Pierre Jean Édouard Desor was born on February 13, 1811 in Friedrichsdorf, Germany. His father was Jean Desor, a manufacturer. Though his family lived in Germany, they spoke French as their first language.
Desor attended grammar school in Hanau, and studied law at the universities of Giessen and Heidelberg.
During a short stay in Paris, Desor was introduced to geology by Élie de Beaumont. His meeting in 1837 in Switzerland with Louis Agassiz marks the turning point of his career; for almost twenty years he was Agassiz’s close friend and chief collaborator. Desor’s two volumes on the glacial theory were published for the general public, and his reports of Agassiz’s expeditions on the Alpine glaciers led to the formation of numerous Alpine clubs. Desor followed Agassiz to America in 1846, but - for reasons still not understood - their friendship ended suddenly.
In the service of federal and state agencies, Desor studied the fauna of the Atlantic shelf aboard the Bibb; took part in the Lake Superior land district survey, directed first by C. T. Jackson and then by J. W. Foster and J. D. Whitney; and undertook a study of the coal basin of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, supervised by H. D. Rogers.
Returning to Neuchâtel in 1852 because of his brother’s poor health, Desor was appointed professor of geology at the Academy of Neuchâtel. His brother’s death in 1858 left him in a financially advantageous situation and enabled him to resign his professorship and return to the study of fossil echinoderms, the geology of the Jura Mountains, and the archaeology of the Bronze Age lake dwellers. From his home at Combe Varin in the Val des Ponts, well-known as a meeting place for natural philosophers, Desor continued his studies and collaborated for twenty years in the preparation of a geological map of Switzerland.
Desor was naturalized in 1859; his subsequent political career led him to the presidency of the Swiss Federal Assembly in 1874. Forced by gout to spend much of his last years on the French Riviera, he devoted his final works to a study of that region’s geology and archaeology.
Having inherited considerable property he retired to Combe Varin in Val-de-Travers. He died in Nice on February 23, 1882.
Because of his liberal political views, the police took a special interest in him.
Desor was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Antiquarian Society.