To the River Plate and Back: The Narrative of a Scientific Mission to South America
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
The Moth Book: A Guide to the Moths of North America
(Combines a general history and anatomy of the moth with c...)
Combines a general history and anatomy of the moth with color illustrations and detailed descriptions for the identification and classification of each specific species found in North America
William Jacob Holland was an American clergyman, zoologist and paleontologist. He served as a Presbyterian minister, chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Background
William Jacob Holland was born on August 16, 1848 in Bethany, Jamaica. He was the eldest of the seven children of Francis Raymond and Augusta Eliza (Wolle) Holland, and a descendant of John Holland, an emigrant from Cheshire, England, to the Moravian settlement in North Carolina in 1773. His father, a missionary of the Moravian Church, was greatly interested in botany and natural history, and in his early years the son developed an interest in biological studies, especially entomology. In 1863 the family settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, after having lived in Ohio and North Carolina.
Education
Holland attended the Moravian College and Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Graduating in 1867, he went on to Amherst College, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1869. For the next two years he taught school, then he attended Princeton Theological Seminary.
Career
On May 12, 1872, Holland was ordained in the Moravian Church, but upon completing his course at Princeton in 1874 he was received into the Presbyterian Church. He had supplied pulpits in Philadelphia from 1872 to 1874, and in the latter year he went to Pittsburgh as pastor of the Bellefield Presbyterian Church. Here he remained until 1891 when he left to become chancellor of the Western University of Pittsburgh, combining for a period of ten years his administrative responsibilities with professorial duties in his favorite field of natural sciences. As a close friend of Andrew Carnegie he became director of the Carnegie Museum, which was largely created through his inspiration and acquired under his guidance a place of prominence.
His administration covered the period from 1898 to 1922, when he was made director emeritus. He continued to give active attention to the entomological section and retained editorial responsibilities in connection with the publications of this institution. As president of the Carnegie Hero Fund he remained until the time of his death a member ex officio of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Holland's main scientific attainments were in the fields of entomology and paleontology. He was especially interested in the lepidoptera, and he assembled a very large collection of butterflies and moths, engaging the services of experienced field men in various lands. He also acquired many significant collections including the valuable collection of William H. Edwards, which contained many types of American butterflies.
He published a number of monographs and essays. Of all of his works the best known are the two standard volumes on the lepidoptera of North America, namely The Butterfly Book (1898 and later editions) and The Moth Book (1903 and later editions). It may safely be said that these works accomplished more in the way of popularizing the interest in lepidoptera among young Americans than any other contemporary publications. In the field of paleontology Holland actively sponsored explorations of fossiliferous regions of the West in the interests of the Carnegie Museum.
He aided in the discovery of several giant dinosaurs, including the Diplodocus carnegiei and the Apatosaurus louisiae, the latter of which he named in honor of the wife of the founder of the museum. An interesting paper which developed from his study of the dinosaur was "The Osteology of the Diplodocus Marsh. "
In fulfilment of a wish expressed by Carnegie, Holland was instrumental in supplying several leading museums of the Old and New Worlds with replicas of the Diplodocus. He is also credited with having issued the call for the meeting that led to the formation of the American Association of Museums, and he served as president of the organization from 1907 to 1909.
He died in Pittsburgh, following a stroke, in his eighty-fifth year.
Achievements
As director of the Carnegie Museums, Holland achieved international renown for supervising the mounting of several casts of the sauropod dinosaur Diplodocus, a donation by Carnegie to natural history museums throughout Europe.
Holland was America's great popularizer of butterflies and moths in the first half of the twentieth century. Holland's The Butterfly Book (1898) and The Moth Book (1903) are both still widely used. Holland donated his private collection exceeding 250, 000 specimens to the Carnegie Museum.
After his death his extensive entomological collections, together with his library, were acquired by the Carnegie Institute in compliance with the conditions of the will stipulating the setting aside of a certain fund for the development of the entomological section.
Holland received several awards, such as French legion d'honneur and German knight's cross. The University of Pittsburgh's Holland Hall at 3990 Fifth Avenue is named in his honor.
Holland was a member of the Bellefield Presbyterian Church.
Interests
In his leisure hours, during his busy life, Holland found recreation in painting. He made his own illustrations for his books and papers and occasionally wrote articles on art subjects.
Connections
Holland was married, on January 23, 1879, to Carrie T. Moorhead, by whom he had three sons.
