John Eatton Le Conte
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
. He was born near Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury, New Jersey
Shrewsbury is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 3,809....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, the son of John Eatton Le Conte and Jane Sloane Le Conte. He graduated from Columbia College
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
, where he showed an interest in science and was taught natural history by David Hosack
David Hosack
Dr. David Hosack , a noted physician, botanist, and educator, is perhaps most widely known as the doctor who attended to Alexander Hamilton after Hamilton's deadly duel with Aaron Burr. Born in New York City to parents Alexander and Jane Hosack, David was the first of their seven children...
, founder of Elgin Botanical Garden.
John Le Conte's older brother Louis inherited the family plantation, Woodmanston, near Midway
Midway, Georgia
Midway is a city in Liberty County, Georgia, United States. It is a part of the Hinesville-Fort Stewart metropolitan statistical area. Midway is situated near Savannah, Brunswick, St. Simons Island, and Jekyll Island. The population was 1,100 as of the 2000 census.Midway has several museums...
in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. Although John Le Conte usually lived in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
or New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, he spent his winters at Woodmanston. He suffered from rheumatism
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...
, and possibly other ailments, for most of his adult life.
In April 1818 Le Conte was appointed captain in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
Corps of Topographical Engineers. His early assignments included surveying the vicinity of Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, the harbor at Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
and Ossabaw Sound
Ossabaw Island
Ossabaw Island is one of the Sea Islands located on the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia approximately twenty miles by water south from the historic downtown of the city of Savannah. One of the largest of Georgia's barrier islands, Ossabaw contains of wooded uplands with...
, Georgia. LeConte was promoted to brevet major in April 1828, and resigned his commission in August 1831.
Early in 1821 John Le Conte approached Secretary of War
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun
John Caldwell Calhoun was a leading politician and political theorist from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun eloquently spoke out on every issue of his day, but often changed positions. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent...
to propose an exploration expedition to the newly acquired territory of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. Later in the year he again contacted Secretary Calhoun, noting that he was assigned to survey the harbor at Savannah that winter, and proposing that he undertake an expedition to Florida while in Georgia for the winter. He requested $970 for the expedition, including the cost of hiring a sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
and crew for one month. The War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
provided him with $600. In early 1822 he proceeded to Fernandina
Fernandina Beach, Florida
Fernandina Beach is a city in Nassau County in the state of Florida in the United States of America and on Amelia Island. It is a part of Greater Jacksonville and is among Florida's northernmost cities. The area was first inhabited by the Timucuan Indian tribe...
, Florida, carrying an order issued by Major General Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
that the commanding officer at Amelia Island
Amelia Island
Amelia Island is one of the southernmost of the Sea Islands, a chain of barrier islands that stretches along the east coast of the United States from South Carolina to Florida. It is long and approximately 4 miles wide at its widest point. Amelia Island is situated off the coast in Nassau County,...
to provide eight men and a non-commissioned officer to accompany Le Conte on his expedition. A Lieutenant Edwin R. Alberti also joined Le Conte's expedition.
The Le Conte party explored up the St. Johns River
St. Johns River
The St. Johns River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant for commercial and recreational use. At long, it winds through or borders twelve counties, three of which are the state's largest. The drop in elevation from the headwaters to the mouth is less than ;...
. The St. Johns River had previously been explored by John
Bartram
Bartram may refer to:*Clint Bartram , Australian footballer*Graham Bartram, British vexillologist*John Bartram , American botanist*John Bartram High School*Kenny Bartram , motocross rider...
and William Bartram
William Bartram
William Bartram was an American naturalist. The son of Ann and John Bartram, William Bartram and his twin sister Elizabeth were born in Kingsessing, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. As a boy, he accompanied his father on many of his travels, to the Catskill Mountains, the New Jersey Pine Barrens,...
in 1765-66 and again by William Bartram in 1773-77, but neither expedition had reached the source of the river. Le Conte also failed to find the headwaters of the river. He wrongly concluded that Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee , locally referred to as The Lake or The Big O, is the largest freshwater lake in the state of Florida. It is the seventh largest freshwater lake in the United States and the second largest freshwater lake contained entirely within the lower 48 states...
(which was shown as the source for the St. Johns River on many maps) did not exist, and his description of the river upstream from Lake George
Lake George (Florida)
Lake George or Lake Welaka is a broad and shallow brackish lake on the St. Johns River in the U.S. state of Florida.-Geography:Lake George is six miles wide and eleven miles long, with an average depth of 8 feet . The west side of the lake is encompassed in the Ocala National Forest...
is inaccurate.
His earliest publication (1811) was a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
text catalogue of plants found on Manhattan Island. An early ambition to publish an American flora was partially pre-empted when Stephen Elliott
Stephen Elliott (botanist)
Stephen Elliott was an American legislator, banker, educator, and botanist who is today remembered for having written one of the most important works in American botany, A Sketch of the Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia.-Biography:Stephen Elliott was born in Beaufort, South Carolina on...
began A Sketch of the Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia.
He then published a number of papers, each on a separate plant genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
. In some, he was critical of Elliott's work although sharing his notes on Utricularia with Elliott. After Elliott's death, Le Conte published only occasional papers on plants.
Le Conte's primary interests were zoological, and he co-authored with Jean Baptiste Boisduval
Jean Baptiste Boisduval
Jean Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval was a French lepidopterist and physician. He developed the Boisduval scale and identified many new species of butterflies. One of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, he was the co-founder of the Société Entomologique de France...
a book on insects, Histoire général et iconographie des lepidoptérès et des chenilles de l’Amerique septentrionale (that is, "General history and illustrations of the Lepidoptera and caterpillars of North{ern} America"), which was published at Paris. Many of the illustrations for this work were done by John Abbot.
He also wrote on frogs, toads, small mammals, reptiles, and crustaceans. Le Conte's color drawings of North American tortoise
Tortoise
Tortoises are a family of land-dwelling reptiles of the order of turtles . Like their marine cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace, the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge. The tortoise...
s led to him being called The Audubon
John James Audubon
John James Audubon was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats...
of Turtles. He described and named twenty-two species and sub-species of terrapins
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
and tortoises in the southeastern United States
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
.
John Eatton Le Conte was a fellow of the Linnean Society of London
Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is the world's premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. It publishes a zoological journal, as well as botanical and biological journals...
and served as vice-president of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York
New York Academy of Sciences
The New York Academy of Sciences is the third oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, non-profit organization with more than members in 140 countries, the Academy’s mission is to advance understanding of science and technology...
. When he moved to Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
after 1841, he was elected vice-president of the Academy of Natural Sciences
Academy of Natural Sciences
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the New World...
.
John Eatton Le Conte married Mary Ann Hampton Lawrence on July 22, 1821 in New York. Their son John Lawrence Le Conte, who became one of the USA’s most important early entomologists, was born on May 13, 1825, in New York. Mary Le Conte died November 19, 1825 while traveling to Georgia from New York. John Eatton Le Conte died on November 21, 1860.
Sources
- Adicks, Richard, Ed. (1978) Le Conte's Report on East Florida. Orlando, FloridaOrlando, FloridaOrlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
: The University Presses of Florida. - Calhoun, J. (2004). Histoire Générale et Iconographie des Lépidoptères et des Chenilles de l’Amérique septentrionale by Boisduval and Le Conte ((1829-[1837]): original drawings used for the engraved plates and the true identities of four figured taxa. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 58:143-168.
- Calhoun, J. (2005). A signature worth a thousand words [correct configuration of Le Conte's surname]. News of the Lepidopterists' Society 47:114.
- Calhoun, J. (2006). John Abbot's "lost" drawings for John Eatton Le Conte in the American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 60:211-217.
- John Eaton Leconte, Early American Naturalist and his Rivalry with Stephen Elliott. Vivian Rogers-Price, George A. Rogers, and Cynthia J. Frost. Section VI: Philosophy and History of Science, Georgia Journal of Science, 2004 - retrieved February 24, 2006
- Integrated Taxonmic Information System Search Results Taxon Author(s): LeConte (1830) - retrieved February 24, 2006
- The John Abbot Watercolors at the University of South Carolina - retrieved February 26, 2006