Othniel Charles Marsh
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS VOLUME XX-FIRST MEMOIR BIOGRAPHICAL hlEhlOIR OE OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH BY CHARLES SCHUCHEKT PRESENTED TO THE -4C.4DEhlY AT THE ASSU.\L JIEETIPU'G, 1938 OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH BY CHARLES SCHUCIIERT Othniel Charles Marsh, for ,twelve years president of the National r\caderny of Sciences, was born to Caleb Marsh and Mary Gaines Peabody on October 29, 1831, in Lockport, New York, and died in New Haven, Connecticut, on March 18, 1899. One of the three founders of the science of vertebrate paleon- tology in America, his career furnishes an outstanding exatnple of the indomitable spirit that drives men on to a determined goal. His motto might well have been. "\l.That 1 have, I hold." He asked no quarter, and gave none. :It home around a camp fire or in an army tent, formal as a presiding officer or in society, at times austere and autocratic, at others a raconteur of note, he left a lasting impression on his chosen 111-anch of science. Summarizing his work statistically, it may be said that he- tween 1861 and 1899 he published about 300 papers, reports, and books. Of new genera he described 225, and of new species, 496; of new families 64, of su1)orders 8, of orders 19, and of subclasses I. Of his work on vertebrate fossils in general, Osbom says that he "carried out the most intensive field esl)loration known to science ant1 pul~lishetl a large num1)er of 1)reliminary papcrs, which fairly revol~~tionizedour knowledge." ANCESTRY AKD TIZ:\INISG John hlarsh of Salem, the first of his name recorded as emigrating from England to America, is believctl to have reached In the preparation of this memorial, the writer has been aided greatly by the excellent skctches of Professor Marsh writtcn by George Bird Grinnell, Charles E.
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